Two years in the making, Version 8 of IBM’s Lotus Notes and Domino were officially released today.
By all accounts, the much-needed upgrade offers a modernized user interface for Notes as well as new usability tools and added capabilities, such as the ability to send instant messages from within the e-mail client via IBM’s Sametime software.
The changes are the result of building the Version 8 client on top of the company’s Eclipse-based rich-client platform, according to IBM officials.
Version 8 represents IBM’s strategy to create client interfaces built on a common platform. This will allow components of any client application to be provisioned and managed centrally, said Barton Group analyst Karen Hobert.
For example, Notes 8 is built on the same programming model as Lotus Expeditor 6.1.1, which is based on open standards from Eclipse.org. The common framework becomes an open client for mashups and composite applications in addition to the traditional Notes features.
Although Notes 8 may not steal market share from Microsoft Corp.’s Outlook client, Hobert said the new release should more than satisfy current Notes users.
