RE: [TCLUG:8080] Lotus Notes ported to Linux

["Schoenhofen, Kelly" <KSchoenhofen@Carlson.com>]

Well, I'm not really trying to make a business case. I was putting forth
that there is not enough reason to switch from NT Notes servers to Linux, to
support my belief that releasing Domino Server for Linux *without* releasing
a client in the forseeable future is bad business sense at best, to large
corporate installations. 

I still don't see Linux as an enterprise server. Why would you pick Linux
over HPUX, for instance? Enterprise tools (the best volume management tools,
for instance) aren't typically ported to Linux. They belong to the
HPUX/Solaris crowd. 
I get the feel that Lotus staked the wrong attitude on Linux - they treat
Linux like it's another *nix server/high end workstation emerging from the
crowd, and it's not.
If Lotus wanted to say "Hey, here's the server native to Linux, the client
is going to be another year" I'd have a much better response. Instead, all
I've heard is "Linux Notes client? Nothing planned!".

Finally, every "plus" mentioned doesn't equate in the short term to an
established large shop :(
Which means, as usual, it's the small guys that are going to get the most
out of technology shifts. We're not a small place (145k employees last I
heard), so we can't jump around as quickly as a small place can. The
hardware cost isn't that much of a factor - it's going to be either a rack
mounted Compaq 5500/6500, or a rack mounted Compaq 5500/6500. Going from 5
to 4 isn't that much of a bonus. Bandwidth strictly speaking, I don't think
we can reduce 2-1. 
As far as uptime/reliability, NT servers sit around 99.9% reliability with
the once a month or sooner scheduled reboots. You're only going to move off
an old technology when there are gun-barrel-in-your-mouth reasons to switch.
We spend prolly 98% of our support dollars on workstation support, not
server. Cutting that last 2% in half isn't an overwhelming reason to switch.
Cutting that 98% in half is, however. I cannot expound on this enough - even
if Linux ruled the server room (or at least had a place), they are getting a
small piece of a small pie. Linux is about the users, not about the
administrators, IMO.


-----Original Message-----
From: Perry Hoekstra [mailto:hoek504@hotmail.com]
Sent: Friday, September 03, 1999 1:15 PM
To: tclug-list@mn-linux.org
Subject: RE: [TCLUG:8080] Lotus Notes ported to Linux

<snip>
>the possibility of runnning an alternative OS like Linux. While a Linux
>Notes server would be great for stability/uptime/performance, the cost to
>train the admins to run & support them offsets any short term advantage -
>and without a short term business advantage, you'll never convince the 
>empty
>heads upstairs.

You are looking at just sysadmin retraining, then I would say you have made 
a poor business case. I would also add in through: hardware (does it take 2 
NT boxes to meet performance 1 Linux box running Domino), remote 
administration, uptime that you mentioned.  Those have costs/savings 
associated with them and needs to be part of a business case.  If retraining

was the only relevant factor, we never would have moved off MVS.