Lotus Notes

IBM Lotus Notes 6.5 default Welcome Page.
Maintainer:	IBM
Latest release:	7.0.2 / September, 2006
OS:	Cross-platform
Use:	collaborative software
License:	Proprietary
Website:	IBM Lotus Software

Lotus Notes is a client-server collaborative software and e-mail system owned by Lotus Software, of the IBM Software Group. Screenshot of IBM Lotus Notes 6. ... In software engineering, software maintenance is the process of enhancing and optimizing deployed software (software release), as well as remedying defects. ... International Business Machines Corporation (IBM, or colloquially, Big Blue) (NYSE: IBM) (incorporated June 15, 1911, in operation since 1888) is headquartered in Armonk, New York, USA. The company manufactures and sells computer hardware, software, and services. ... A software release refers to the creation and availability of a new version of a computer software product. ... Look up September in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... A cross-platform (or platform independent) programming language, software application or hardware device works on more than one system platform (e. ... Skip Ellis defined groupware as computer-based systems that support groups of people engaged in a common task (or goal) and that provide an interface to a shared environment. It is also known as Collaborative software. ... A software license is a legal agreement which may take the form of a proprietary or gratuitous license as well as a memorandum of contract between a producer and a user of computer software. ... Proprietary indicates that a party, or proprietor, exercises private ownership, control or use over an item of property, usually to the exclusion of other parties. ... Website - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Client/Server is a network application architecture which separates the client (usually the graphical user interface) from the server. ... Skip Ellis defined groupware as computer-based systems that support groups of people engaged in a common task (or goal) and that provide an interface to a shared environment. It is also known as Collaborative software. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Lotus Software (called Lotus Development Corporation before its acquisition by IBM) is an American software company with its headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ... International Business Machines Corporation (IBM, or colloquially, Big Blue) (NYSE: IBM) (incorporated June 15, 1911, in operation since 1888) is headquartered in Armonk, New York, USA. The company manufactures and sells computer hardware, software, and services. ...

Features

IBM Lotus Notes 7 customized Welcome Page.

Lotus Notes Page in Lotus Notes 6.5

Lotus Notes Release 5 client workspace

The Notes client is mainly used as an email client, but also acts as an instant messaging client (for Lotus Sametime), browser, notebook, and calendar/resource reservation client, as well as a platform for interacting with collaborative applications. Supporters of the Notes client regard the easy interoperability of all of these roles a major advantage in multiple-application business environments. In the early days of the product, the most common applications were threaded discussions and simple contact management databases. Today Notes also provides blogs, wikis, RSS aggregators, CRM and Help Desk systems, and organizations can build a variety of custom applications for Notes using Domino Designer. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1400x1024, 261 KB)Lotus Notes 7 Welcome Page showing four-pane display with Mailbox, Follow-Up, Calendar and To-Do. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1400x1024, 261 KB)Lotus Notes 7 Welcome Page showing four-pane display with Mailbox, Follow-Up, Calendar and To-Do. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1152x835, 120 KB) Summary Wikipedia Main Page Through Lotus Notes. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1152x835, 120 KB) Summary Wikipedia Main Page Through Lotus Notes. ... C:Lotus Notes Release 5 Workspace - Screengrab by User:Tagishsimon 16th May 2004 - This is a screenshot of a copyrighted website, video game graphic, computer program graphic, television broadcast, or film. ... C:Lotus Notes Release 5 Workspace - Screengrab by User:Tagishsimon 16th May 2004 - This is a screenshot of a copyrighted website, video game graphic, computer program graphic, television broadcast, or film. ... IBM Lotus Sametime is the commercial Instant Messaging service by the Lotus Software brand of IBM. It provides instant messaging(IM) and presence awareness capabilities as well as support for web conferencing. ...

The Notes client can be used as an IMAP and POP e-mail client with non-domino mail servers, recipient addresses can be retrieved from any LDAP server, including Active Directory. The client also does web browsing although most people configure it to launch their default browser instead. The Internet Message Access Protocol (commonly known as IMAP4, and previously called Internet Mail Access Protocol) is an application layer Internet protocol that allows a local client to access e-mail on a remote server. ... In computing, local e-mail clients use the Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3), an application-layer Internet standard protocol, to retrieve e-mail from a remote server over a TCP/IP connection. ... In computer networking, the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, or LDAP (ell-dap), is a networking protocol for querying and modifying directory services running over TCP/IP. An LDAP directory usually follows the X.500 model: it is a tree of entries, each of which consists of a set of named...

Features include group calendaring and scheduling, SMTP-based e-mail (HTML based e-mail is available to Java developers), NNTP-based news support, and automatic HTML conversion of all documents by the Domino HTTP task. Notes instant messaging allows you to see your coworkers online and have chat sessions with them. A chat session can be with one person or multiple people (an instant meeting). In its latest incarnation (Notes7) it provides a web services interface. Domino can be a web server for HTML files too; authentication of access to Domino databases or HTML files uses Domino's own user directory and external systems such as Microsoft's Active Directory. Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is the de facto standard for e-mail transmission across the Internet. ... The Network News Transfer Protocol or NNTP is an Internet application protocol used primarily for reading and posting Usenet articles, as well as transferring news among news servers. ... In computing, HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is a markup language designed for the creation of web pages and other information viewable in a browser. ... Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the method used to transfer or convey information on the World Wide Web. ...

A design client is available to allow rapid development of databases consisting of forms, which allow users to create documents; and views, which display selected document fields in columns. A database is a collection of logically related data designed to meet the information needs of one or more users. ... In computer science, data that has several parts can be divided into fields. ...

In addition to being a "groupware" system (e-mail, calendaring, shared documents and discussions), Notes/Domino is also a platform for developing customized client-server and web applications. Its use of design constructs and code provide capabilities that facilitate the construction of "workflow" type applications (which may typically have complex approval processes and routing of data).

Data Replication

A unique feature of Notes and Domino is its replication facilities. Servers and clients can replicate database designs and data across many types of networks (including modems). This enables users to take full advantage of Notes databases while being off-line—with the client synchronizing any changes when client and server next connect. Even while off-line full security can be preserved, but only by encrypting each database to a specified Notes ID file. Prior to Notes 6, new local replicas were created without this encryption, which led some security Web sites to claim a major security back door in Notes. With Notes 6, however, new replicas are, by default, encrypted to the Notes ID that is used to create them. Replication can be scheduled, initiated manually, or initiated programmatically. Replication takes place between a client and a server (initiated by the client) or between two servers.

Security

Security is built into the product. Notes was the first widely adopted software product to use public key cryptography for client-server and server-server authentication and for encryption of data, and it remains the product with the largest installed base of PKI users. Until US laws regulating encryption were changed in 2000, Lotus was prohibited from exporting versions of Notes that supported symmetric encryption keys that were longer than 40 bits. In 1997, Lotus negotiated an agreement with the NSA that allowed export of a version that supported stronger keys with 64 bits, but 24 of the bits were encrypted with a special key and included in the message to provide a "workload reduction factor" for the NSA. The effect of this was that users of Notes outside of the US had stronger protection against private sector industrial espionage, but no additional protection against spying by the US government.^[1] This implementation was not a secret - in fact it was widely announced - but with some justification many people did consider it to be a backdoor. Some governments objected to being put at a disadvantage to the NSA, and as a result Lotus continued to support the 40 bit version for export to those countries. Under current US export laws, Lotus supports only one version of the Notes PKI with 128 bit symmetric keys, 1024 bit public keys, and no workload reduction factor. The Domino server's security tools also include S/MIME, SSL 3.0 support with industry standard key sizes for HTTP and other Internet protocols, X.509 client certificates, and an integrated certificate authority. Public key cryptography is a form of cryptography which generally allows users to communicate securely without having prior access to a shared secret key, by using a pair of cryptographic keys, designated as public key and private key, which are related mathematically. ... The National Security Agency / Central Security Service (NSA/CSS) is believed to be the largest United States government intelligence gathering agency. ... A backdoor in a computer system (or cryptosystem or algorithm) is a method of bypassing normal authentication or securing remote access to a computer, while attempting to remain hidden from casual inspection. ... S/MIME (Secure / Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) is a standard for public key encryption and signing of e-mail encapsulated in MIME. // History S/MIME was originally developed by RSA Data Security Inc. ... Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS), its successor, are cryptographic protocols which provide secure communications on the Internet. ... The Internet Protocol (IP) is a data-oriented protocol used for communicating data across a packet-switched internetwork. ... In cryptography, X.509 is an ITU-T standard for public key infrastructure (PKI). ... In cryptography, a certificate authority or certification authority (CA) is an entity which issues digital certificates for use by other parties. ...

Programming

Domino Designer 7 IDE.

Notes/Domino is a cross-platform, secure, distributed database and messaging framework and rapid application development environment that includes pre-built applications like email, calendar, etc. This sets it apart from its major commercial competitors, such as Microsoft Exchange or Novell GroupWise, which are generally purpose-built applications for mail and calendaring that offer APIs for extensibility. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1400x1024, 250 KB) Summary Domino Designer 7 IDE. Code shown is open source, from the OpenNTF Blogsphere Project. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1400x1024, 250 KB) Summary Domino Designer 7 IDE. Code shown is open source, from the OpenNTF Blogsphere Project. ... Microsoft Exchange was initially the universal email client that was part of Windows 95, but later on was an email solution that consists of Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft Exchange Client. ... GroupWise is a collaborative software product from Novell, Inc. ...

Lotus Domino databases are built using the Domino Designer client, available only for Windows. A key feature of Notes is that many replicas of the same database can exist at the same time on different servers and clients, across dissimilar platforms, and the same storage architecture is used for both client and server replicas. Originally, replication in Notes happened at document (i.e. record) level. With release of Notes 4 in 1996, replication was changed so that it now occurs at field level.

A database is an NSF (Notes Storage Facility) file, containing basic units of storage known as a "note". Every note has a UniqueID and a NoteID. The UniqueID uniquely identifies the note across all replicas within a cluster of servers, a domain of servers, or even across domains belonging to many organizations that are all hosting replicas of the same database. The NoteId, on the other hand, is unique to the note only within the context of one given replica. Each note also stores its creation and modification dates, and one or more Items.

There are several classes of notes, including design notes and document notes. Design notes, which are created and modified with the Domino Designer client, represent programmable elements, such as the GUI layout of forms for displaying and editing data, or formulas and scripts for manipulating data. Document notes, which are created and modified with the Lotus Notes client, via a web browser, via mail routing and delivery, or via programmed code, represent user data.

Document notes can have parent-child relationships, but Notes should not be considered a hierarchical database in the classic sense of IMS. Notes databases are also not relational, although there is a SQL driver that can be used with Notes, and it does have some features that can be used to develop applications that mimic relational features. There is no support for atomic transactions in Notes, and its file locking is rudimentary at best. Notes is essentially a document-based, schemaless, loosely structured database with support for rich content and powerful indexing facilities. This structure closely mimics paper-based workflows that Lotus Notes is typically used to automate. Information Management System (IMS) is a joint hierarchical database and information management system. ... The relational model for database management is a data model based on predicate logic and set theory. ... SQL (commonly expanded to Structured Query Language — see History for the terms derivation) is the most popular computer language used to create, modify, retrieve and manipulate data from relational database management systems. ...

Items represent the content of a note. Every item has a name, a type, and may optionally have some flags set. A note can have more than one item with the same name. Types include Number, Number List, Text, Text List, Date-Time, Date-Time List, and Rich Text. Flags are used for managing attributes associated with the item, such as read or write security. Items in design notes represent the programmed elements of a database. For example, the layout of an entry form is stored in the rich text Body item within a form design note. This means that the design of the database can replicate to users' desktops just like the data itself, making it extremely easy to deploy updated applications.

Items in document notes represent user-entered or computed data. An item named "Form" in a document note can be used to bind a document to a form design note, which directs the Lotus Notes client to merge the content of the document note items with the GUI information and code represented in the given form design note for display and editing purposes. The resulting loose binding of documents to design information is one of the cornerstones of the power of Lotus Notes. Traditional database developers used to working with rigidly enforced schemas, on the other hand, may consider the power of this feature to be a double-edged sword.

Notes applications development uses several programming languages. Formula and LotusScript are the two main ones. LotusScript is similar to, and may even be considered a specialized implementation of, Visual Basic, but with the addition of many powerful native classes that model the Notes environment, whereas Formula is unique to Notes but similar to Lotus 1-2-3 formula language. The Formula language is a scripting language used by Lotus Notes. ... LotusScript is a dialect of the BASIC programming language used by Lotus Notes and other IBM Lotus Software products. ... This article is about the Visual Basic language shipping with Microsoft Visual Studio 6. ...

Since Release 5, Java and JavaScript are also integrated into Lotus Notes. LotusScript is the primary tool in developing applications for the Notes client, as well as server-based processing. Java and JavaScript are the primary tools for developing applications for browser access, allowing browsers to emulate the functionality of the Notes client. The Notes client can now natively process Java and JavaScript code, although applications development usually requires at least some code specific to only Notes or only a browser. However, the Mac client does not support Java and the Windows client usually does not support the most recent version of Java. Java is an object-oriented programming language developed by James Gosling and colleagues at Sun Microsystems in the early 1990s. ... JavaScript is the name of Netscape Communications Corporations implementation of ECMAScript standard, a scripting programming language based on the concept of prototypes. ...

As of version 6, Lotus established an XML programming interface in addition to the options already available. The Domino XML Language (DXL) provides XML representations of all data and design resources in the Notes model, allowing any XML processing tool to create and modify Notes/Domino data.

External to the Lotus Notes application, IBM provides toolkits in C, C++, and Java to connect to the Domino database and perform a wide variety of tasks. The C toolkit is the most mature and the C++ toolkit is an objectized version of the C toolkit, lacking many functions the C toolkit provides. The Java toolkit is the least mature of the three and can be used for basic application needs.** Wikibooks has a book on the topic of C Programming The C programming language (often, just C) is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative computer programming language developed in the early 1970s by Dennis Ritchie for use on the Unix operating system. ... C++ (generally pronounced /si plÊŒs plÊŒs/) is a general-purpose, high-level programming language with low-level facilities. ... Java is an object-oriented programming language developed by James Gosling and colleagues at Sun Microsystems in the early 1990s. ...

Database

Notes databases are different from RDBMS since they are document centric, allow multi values in items (fields), don't require a schema (they use a meta schema instead), come with built in document level access control and store RichText data. However, you can map a Notes database to a relational database by tools like JDBCSql for Domino or NotesSQL. A relational database management system (RDBMS) is a database management system (DBMS) that is based on the relational model as introduced by Edgar F. Codd. ...

RDBMS developers often find it difficult to conceptualise the difference. It may be useful to think of a Notes document (a 'note') as analogous to a BLOB (a Binary Large Object). The benefits of this data structure are:

1. No need to define size of fields, or datatype — although you can if you want to;
2. Attributes (= Notes fields) which are null, take up no space in a database;
3. Built-in full text searching.

Use as an email client

Lotus Notes is commonly deployed as an end-user email client in larger organisations, accounting for more than 120,000,000 total users according to IBM's latest figures.

When an organization employs a Lotus Notes server, it usually means all its users use the Lotus Notes client for reading mail and for using databases. However, the Domino server also supports POP3 and IMAP mail clients, and through an extension product (DAMO - Domino Access for Microsoft Outlook) supports native access for Microsoft Outlook clients. Lotus also provides Domino Web Access, to allow the use of email and calendaring features through Internet Explorer and Firefox web browsers on Windows, Mac and Linux client platforms.

There are several spam filtering programs available, and a rules engine allowing user defined mail processing to be performed by the server.

How Notes differs from other email clients

Lotus Notes is a unique environment. It was designed to be a collaborative application platform where email was just one of numerous applications that ran in the Notes client software. The Notes client was also designed to run on multiple platforms including Windows, UNIX, Linux and Mac. These two factors have resulted in the user interface containing some differences from applications that only run on Windows. Furthermore these differences have often remained in the product to retain backward compatibility with earlier releases, in favour of conforming to Windows UI standards. Some of Notes differences include:

• Notes requires users to select a 'New Memo' to send an email, rather than New Mail.

• Some keystrokes that some other popular mail applications bind to commonly used features do not work in Notes. Examples are:
  • Notes uses Ctrl->M to create a new mail, whereas many other mail clients use Ctrl->N for this purpose. (However, Netscape's mail component and Mozilla Thunderbird also use Ctrl->M on a PC, or Shift->Command->M on a Macintosh).
  • Ctrl->R, to create an email reply, also does not work in Notes, which has no other keystroke defined for this purpose.
  • Notes uses F9 as its refresh key and F5 to log a user out without terminating the program. Some Microsoft applications (e.g., Outlook 2002, Explorer, Internet Explorer) use F5 as a refresh key, others (e.g. Outlook 2003, Word, Excel) use F9. F9's use as the refresh key in PC applications pre-dates Microsoft's choice of F5. It dates from the early 1980s, when Lotus 1-2-3 was the most popular PC application.

• Deleting a document (or email) will delete it from every folder in which it appears. Most other email clients only delete the email from the current folder; if the email appears in other folders it is left alone.

• To select multiple documents in a Notes view, you have to drag your mouse next to the documents that you want to select, rather than using Shift->Click action. (NB: Lotus plans to address this in the "Hannover" release of Notes, of which more below).

• The searching in Notes is a "phrase search", rather than the more common "or search", and Notes requires users to spell out boolean conditions in search string. As a result, users must search for ‘delete and folder’ in order to find help text that contains the phrase ‘delete a folder’. Searching for ‘delete folder’ does not yield the desired result.

• Notes's built-in full text search engine will only find email in the currently selected folder or view; if you click search while you're in your Inbox, then that's the only place that the search will look. To the user, it can appear that Notes has lost the email, in this case, when in fact, the user is simply "not looking in the correct place". (The correct place to initiate search is the Notes mailbox's All Documents view, if you want to search the entire mailbox.)

• The All and Sent folders exhibit some different behaviors than other folders. Namely, you cannot drag email out of them and thereby remove the email from the folders. The email can only be "copied" from them. This is because these two folders are not, in fact, folders at all: they are views. Their membership indexes are maintained according to programmed criteria rather than user interaction (as with a folder). This technical difference is not apparent to some users, and can cause confusion even for those that are experienced with the product. Notes's defenders argue that this particular "difference" does make a kind of sense, however. For example, does an email that is removed from a Sent Mail folder become an email that was never sent? And does an email that is removed from an All folder (as opposed to deleted outright) then become an email that no longer exists? And if not, where do you look for it?

Like all popular commercial software packages, Lotus Notes has its detractors as well as supporters. Critics assert that there are dedicated email clients that are simpler, more intuitive and have a lower purchase price. Proponents argue that richer capabilities and advanced programmability are available, and that purchase price is a small fraction of total cost of ownership. Many of the differences mentioned above are seen by some as weaknesses in the product, especially when the user interface is compared to Windows only applications. Netscape, formerly Netscape Communications Corporation, was an American computer services company, best known for their web browser. ... Mozilla Thunderbird is a free, cross-platform e-mail and news client developed by the Mozilla Foundation. ... Screenshot of Outlook 2003 Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager from Microsoft, and is part of the Microsoft Office suite. ... Windows Explorer running on Windows XP Windows Explorer is an application that is part of modern versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system that provides a graphical user interface for accessing the file systems. ... Internet Explorer, abbreviated IE or MSIE is a web browser from Microsoft currently sold as part of Microsoft Windows. ... Lotus 1-2-3 is a spreadsheet program from Lotus Software (now part of IBM). ... Total cost of ownership (TCO) is a financial estimate designed to help consumers and enterprise managers assess direct and indirect costs related to the purchase of any capital investment, such as (but not limited to) computer software or hardware. ...

Later releases of the product made some headway in addressing end-user complaints. Notes 6.5 (2003), in particular, paid some long needed attention to the e-mail client, which has traditionally been regarded as the product's Achilles heel. Features added at this time include: In Greek mythology, Achilles is made invulnerable by being dipped in the river Styx by his mother, Thetis. ...

• unread counts on folders
• drag and drop of folders
• replication of unread marks between servers
• follow-up flags
• reply and forward indicators on emails
• ability to edit an attachment and save the changes back to an e-mail

In terms of usability, this release went a good way towards redressing the balance with arch-rival, the Microsoft Outlook/Microsoft Exchange combination, which had incorporated many of these features for a number of years. Screenshot of Outlook 2003 Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager from Microsoft, and is part of the Microsoft Office suite. ... Microsoft Exchange was initially the universal email client that was part of Windows 95, but later on was an email solution that consists of Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft Exchange Client. ...

Criticisms

Criticisms of the product include:

• Many end users, particularly those mainly using it for emailing, have complained that aspects of the graphical user interface are unintuitive. Some of these criticisms have been addressed in recent versions.

• The out of office (OOO) feature was designed to limit traffic by sending the out of office messages at 2am (by default) instead of immediately after messages are received, giving the impression that it did not work. Recent releases have increased the frequency of out of office emails, which are now sent every few hours.

• Setting up archiving for the first time was complex, and often did not create an archive file straight away (the file is created when the first email is archived). This led many users to believe it did not work.

• Some error messages use jargon that assumes knowledge of technical details that most end-users have little reason to know.

• Some users get confused between the "Starts with" search and full text search features offered in the Notes UI, the former of which will only search on data that is visible in the currently sorted column of the visible folder. The product's defenders point out that Notes does, at least, have a built-in full text search feature, unlike rival, Microsoft Outlook, which relies on external plugins to provide the functionality.

• The Programming IDE is criticised for being unbearable to program and not having alternative editors as compared to other programming environments. IBM is actively supporting Eclipse as an IDE and is looking to have it replace the clunky (Notes based) editor, as Eclipse is a java based editor used in numerous other IBM software products.

Screenshot of Outlook 2003 Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager from Microsoft, and is part of the Microsoft Office suite. ... See Integrated Development Environment (IDE) Integrated_development_environment Binomial name Leuciscus idus Linnaeus, 1758 The ide or orfe, Leuciscus idus, is a freshwater fish of the family Cyprinidae found across northern Europe and Asia. ... The French 1999 eclipse An eclipse (Greek verb: ekleipô, to vanish, though it derives from the prefix ex-, away from, and Greek leipein, to leave) is an astronomical event that occurs when one celestial object moves into the shadow of another. ... Java (Indonesian, Javanese, and Sundanese: Jawa) is an island of Indonesia and the site of its capital city, Jakarta. ... now. ...

History

Lotus Notes has a history spanning more than 20 years.^[2] Its chief inspiration was PLATO Notes, which ran under the PLATO system on the CDC 6600. Ray Ozzie, who in 2006 succeeded Bill Gates as Chief Software Architect at Microsoft, worked with PLATO while attending the University of Illinois in the 1970s. When PC network technology began to emerge, Ozzie made a deal with Mitch Kapor, the founder of Lotus Development Corporation, that resulted in the formation of Iris Associates in 1984 to develop products that would combine the capabilities of PCs with the collaborative tools pioneered in PLATO. The agreement put control of product development under Ozzie and Iris, and sales and marketing under Lotus. In 1994, after the release and marketplace success of Notes R3, Lotus purchased Iris. In 1995 IBM purchased Lotus. PLATO, an apronym for Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operation, was one of the first generalized computer-based teaching systems, originally built by the University of Illinois and later taken over by Control Data (CDC), who provided the machines it ran on. ... The CDC 6600 was a mainframe computer from Control Data Corporation, first manufactured in 1965. ... Ray Ozzie at the Web 2. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about one of the founders of Microsoft. ... Software architecture or software systems architecture can best be thought of as a representation of an engineered (or To Be Engineered) software system, and the process and discipline for effectively implementing the design(s) for such a system. ... This article or section may be confusing or unclear for some readers, and should be edited to rectify this. ... Mitch Kapor Mitch Kapor (center) with Bill Gates and Fred Gibbons, during their time working on developing applications for the Apple Macintosh, 1984 Mitchell David Kapor (born 1950) is the founder of Lotus Development Corporation and the designer of Lotus 1-2-3, the killer application often credited with making... Lotus Software (called Lotus Development Corporation before its acquisition by IBM) is an American software company headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ... Iris Associates was a software development company founded in Littleton, Massachusetts on December 7th, 1984 by Ray Ozzie, specifically to build the software ultimately known as Lotus Notes. ... now. ...

When Lotus Notes was initially released, the name "Notes" referred to both the client and server components. In 1996, Lotus released an add-on for the Notes 4 server called "Domino". This add-on allowed Notes documents to be rendered as web pages in real time. With the release of Notes 4.5, later that year, the Domino web server was integrated into the core Notes server, which was itself renamed to "Domino". The client is still called "Notes", while the server component is now known as "Domino". However, one may frequently see the terms used interchangeably. Lotus Domino is an IBM server product that provides enterprise-grade e-mail, collaboration capabilities and custom application platform. ...

Versions

• Release 1 - 1989 - The Notes client required DOS 3.1 or OS/2. The Notes server required either DOS 3.1, 4.0, or OS/2.
• Release 1.1 - 1990
• Release 2 - 1991
• Release 3 - May 1993
• Release 4 - January 1996
• Release 4.5 - December 1996. Server renamed as "Domino", added native HTTP server, POP3 (POP) server, added Calendaring & Scheduling. Also included SMTP MTA "in the box", but not installed by default.
• Release 4.6: added IMAP support. OS/2 and Unix client support dropped. No Mac client for this particular release.
• Release 5 - 1999: Moved SMTP functionality from a separate MTA task to become a native ability of the mail routing task, improving performance and fidelity of internet email. Major improvements to HTTP server. Notes client had a major interface overhaul.
• Release 5.0.8 - Added a new webmail interface, called iNotes (later changed to Domino Web Access in Release 6).
• Release 6.0 - September 2002. Added Domino Web Access (formerly iNotes Web Access) support. Dropped OS/2 server support.
• Release 6.5 - September 2003. Added Lotus SameTime Instant Messaging integration to the Notes client (Windows only).
• Release 7.0 - August 2005. Added DB2 support as database storage
• Release 7.0.1 - July 2006. Added native Linux client, with initial release certified for RHEL.
• Release 7.0.2 - Semptember 2006. Added blog template, rss feed support, iCal support, SAP integration and "Nomad" which allows you to take your Notes client with you on a USB device.

Current server versions available: Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the method used to transfer or convey information on the World Wide Web. ... In computing, local e-mail clients use the Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3), an application-layer Internet standard protocol, to retrieve e-mail from a remote server over a TCP/IP connection. ... Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is the de facto standard for e-mail transmission across the Internet. ... The Internet Message Access Protocol (commonly known as IMAP4, and previously called Internet Mail Access Protocol) is an application layer Internet protocol that allows a local client to access e-mail on a remote server. ... Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is the de facto standard for e-mail transmission across the Internet. ... Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the method used to transfer or convey information on the World Wide Web. ... DB2® is IBMs family of information management software products. ... RSS is a three-letter acronym that can stand for a wide variety of terms. ... The correct title of this article is iCal. ... The abbreviation, acronym, or initialism SAP has several different meanings: SAP AG, a German software company, or its various products such as SAP R/3 or SAP Business Information Warehouse second audio program (television) Session Announcement Protocol Soritong audio player Simple As Possible Computer Architecture Structural Adjustment Program of the...

• 7.0.2 web upgrade only
• 7.0.1 for Windows
• 7.0.1 for Linux/x86
• 6.5.5 for zLinux
• 7.0.1 for AIX
• 7.0.1 for i5/OS (OS/400 v5)
• 6.5.5 for Sun Solaris

Current client versions available:

• 7.0.2 web upgrade only
• 7.0.1 for Windows
• 6.5.4 for Macintosh (7.0.2 due for Beta in late Sep 2006)
• Version 7.0.1 for Linux/x86 (Red Hat & SuSE initially).

Various versions of the client have been run under Wine on Linux, but with varying degrees of success and no official support. The Notes 7 client and Domino Designer 7 are known to install and runs well under version 0.9.19.^[3] The Wine project aims to allow a PC running a Unix-like operating system and the X Window System to execute x86 programs for Microsoft Windows. ... Linux (also known as GNU/Linux) is a Unix-like computer operating system. ...

Domino servers can also translate most databases into HTML for browser based users.

Future

This article or section contains information about scheduled or expected future software. The content may change dramatically as the software release approaches and more information becomes available.

Since the IBM acquisition of Lotus, some industry analysts and mainstream business press writers, along with IBM competitors, have made predictions of the impending demise of Lotus Notes. One noted example of this was an article published in Forbes magazine entitled "The decline and fall of Lotus", published in April 1998. Since that time, IBM claims that the installed base of Lotus Notes has nearly tripled from an estimated 42 million seats in September 1998 to more than 125 million in 2006 ^{[citation needed]}. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Image File history File links Nuvola_apps_kpager. ... Forbes Building on Fifth Avenue in New York City Forbes is a publishing and media company. ...

Current speculation about the decline of Notes is fueled by lingering market confusion emanating from IBM placing marketing emphasis on Websphere and IBM Workplace in 2003 and 2004. IBM's most recent figures, however, indicate that the product is having a sustained period of double-digit growth. While the future of any product in the technology sector cannot be predicted, IBM has made announcements that indicate that it continues to invest heavily in research and development on the Lotus Notes product line. The next major Notes release, currently code-named "Hannover" (after the location of the 22nd Deutsche Notes User Group meeting, where it was first shown to the public) will incorporate Notes into a larger Eclipse framework and include support for a Linux version. At a Deutsche Notes User Group meeting on May 15, 2006, IBM announced they would be incorporating Workplace client technology into Notes, which will in turn give Notes wide-ranging support for the OpenDocument format^[4]. In addition, IBM executive Ken Bisconti has made public comments on several occasions asserting that there will be releases 8, 9 and 10 of Notes and Domino ^[5]. WebSphere refers to a brand of IBM software products, although the term also popularly refers to one specific product: WebSphere Application Server (WAS). ... IBM Workplace, sometimes called Lotus Workplace, is a proprietary software product from IBM that aims to help workers, especially in business and government offices, communicate and collaborate. ... Map of Germany showing Hanover Hanover (in German: Hannover [haˈnoːfɐ]), on the river Leine, is the capital of the state of Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), Germany. ... Eclipse is a free software / open source platform-independent software framework for delivering what the project calls rich-client applications, as opposed to thin client browser-based applications. ... Linux (also known as GNU/Linux) is a Unix-like computer operating system. ... (Redirected from 15 May) May 15 is the 135th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (136th in leap years). ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... IBM Workplace, sometimes called Lotus Workplace, is a proprietary software product from IBM that aims to help workers, especially in business and government offices, communicate and collaborate. ... OpenDocument or ODF, short for the OASIS Open Document Format for Office Applications, is an open format for saving and exchanging office documents such as memos, reports, books, spreadsheets, databases, charts, and presentations. ...

In 2005, some analysts have nevertheless concluded that Lotus is losing market share to Microsoft Exchange ^[6]. There is no general agreement, however, about methods of accurately calculating share in the messaging and collaboration market. Figures based on seat count may be skewed by the presence of unused seats that are counted as a result of "bundled CALs", and figures based on customer count may be skewed by difference in typical customer organization sizes. IBM has asserted that growth shown in the revenue figures for the Lotus brand, as published in their audited annual financial report, show the continuing strength of the Lotus Notes product in the market. Microsoft Exchange was initially the universal email client that was part of Windows 95, but later on was an email solution that consists of Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft Exchange Client. ...

See also

• List of IBM products
• Comparison of e-mail clients
• IBM Lotus Domino server

The following is a list of products from the International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation, spanning from early-to-mid-20th-century punched card machinery, time clocks, and typewriters, via mainframe computers and minicomputers, to microprocessors, PCs, laptop PCs, and more. ... The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of e-mail client programs. ... Lotus Domino is an IBM server product that provides enterprise-grade e-mail, collaboration capabilities and custom application platform. ...

References

1. ^ "The Swedes discover Lotus Notes has key escrow!" The Risks Digest, Volume 19, Issue 52, 1997-12-24
2. ^ Official history of Lotus Notes IBM DeveloperWorks Web Site
3. ^ Support info for running Notes 7 on Wine The Official Wine Wiki
4. ^ "IBM backs OpenDocument in Lotus Notes" Article published in May, 2006
5. ^ "Lotus set to uphold the future of Notes" Article published in January, 2006
6. ^ "IBM In Denial Over Lotus Notes" Article published in April 2005

External links

• Lotus Notes Homepage
• Lotus Developer Domain: Products, E-Zine, Downloads, Discussion Forums, Documentation
• The History of Notes and Domino
• IBM Redbooks - Lotus Books on Lotus Notes and Domino, written by IBM staff, IBM business partners and customers
• OpenNTF.org: Open Source Lotus Notes/Domino applications
• Plato: The Emergence of Online Community David R. Woolley's description of PLATO Notes.
• Lotus Notes Sucks Anonymous page with acerbic criticisms of the Lotus Notes user interface.