Next Time RTFM, Myself Included

We are working on a Lotus Quickplace tool for a rather large customer.
Problem was we don't have QP running, just Lotus Quickr 8.2.

Small differences could be project threatening, so off I go to build a QP 7.x server.

Using Lotus Domino 7.0.4 as the base.

Any takers what is wrong with this configuration?

Herein is a warning to us all.

Never presume a version of any program works with any other program.

Needless to say in this lovely technote(#1380610) from IBM the following is succinctly stated among other information:

Lotus QuickPlace 7.0 or 7.x is not supported, and should not be installed, on Lotus Domino 7.0.4.

So back to Partnerworld I go for the 4th time today in search of code.

The Ghost of Sametime

As one should figure by now, today is Sametime day.

When upgrading from Lotus Sametime 2,3,7 to 8.0.2 you may experience the following:

Upgrading Domino to 802 so you can install Sametime 802 takes all the Sametime services out of the Windows services list. BUT, Domino still loads them, but one can not connect to ST of course.

EDIT: Of course Staddin was still loaded in notes.ini, I was just amused that the Windows services disappeared.

Once you have upgraded Domino to FP1, then restart it and shut it down.

Now install Sametime 802.

Bring the server back up and "POOF" Sametime Services are back running.

Strange but true stories out here in the wilds of Domino and Sametime upgrading to R8. All is well.

And don't forget to install all the Java update patches as well as the Sametime fixes.

Which Sametime Client do you install?

Don't know about you but this probably drives people crazy.

If you need to install the Lotus Sametime Connect Client for ST 8.0.2 so it is available from your network server, you need the version checked here.

But at quick glance they look the same don't they! Except for that install/installer word. And the "install" version is some upgrade version although I am not sure, but I know it wasn't what we wanted to install.

You want the C1JZ2ML ("installer") of course.

Thought we were getting better named files from Partnerworld?

Lotusphere 2010 - Booked for it yet?

Yes package deals are already available, check this one out:
A UK site phone number included.

Also Robin Wills posted Virgin had some deals on, see his post.

As you know I am in the UK for the summer and still adjusting to every search I make coming up via google.co.uk or for that matter all UK sites first. This is annoying me to no end, but that's another post.

So evidently some enterprising travel agents in the UK think there will be big demand and starting early.

For those not in the know or wondering when Lotusphere 2010 is, the dates for the 20th anniversary of Lotus Notes(in December 09 but one would think something might be made of this fact) are:

January 17-21,2010 at everyone's favorite home away from home, the Swan and Dolphin.

LotusLive Meetings- 1st Impressions from my new team

Recently took on a sales organization to expand business.
Decided they should get immersed in Lotus products.

So I signed up for a 30 day trial(comparison of the lotus Live Offerings is here with prices) of Lotus Live(Previously Sametime Unyte) meetings which is described as

LotusLive Meetings is a full-featured web conferencing service used by companies of all sizes worldwide. With this service you will be able to quickly and easily meet online to share information, give presentations, demonstrate software and work collaboratively with people across the office or around the world.

Well it worked fine for our small group and with me on video and slides from London.
We did not use the VOIP on it so can't say how well that works.
Didn't lose the feed or drop anyone, no stuck pages or lack of refresh.
And a very simple process to register and set up the meeting.
To be honest more questions were about my presentation than the software itself, which is how I wanted it anyway.

I have one complaint.
There is a formatting issue in that the original presentation was cut off by the viewer which seems odd to me as it should accept whatever page size and make it fit to the necessary size. Well next time I know not to use the bottom row I guess.

Fud Buster Friday #46 - Lotus Notes is just about Email

A half truth, the whole truth is Lotus Notes is of course email, calendar/schedule, personal information manager but it's also:

A Customizable UI, put panels where you want on your 3 screen setup
Flexible views and customizations on a basic level, deeper if you are so inclined
Runs GTD (Getting Things Done) eProductivity
A Widget Player
Instant Messaging client
Rebate Tracking
Wedding lists, invites, addresses and gift registry
Home Inventory (for insurance purposes or just good to know)
Grocery List Minder
Kids school lunches for the month
Expense reports
Mileage tracking
Password logging
Photo storage
Travel/hotel/car details
Listing of Irish Pubs around the world
Maintains all household details
Stores tax returns
Secure ID which saves all your details from prying eyes
and MORE

Business Usage:
Phone Call Logs
Mail Logs(important in Law, Medical, Accounting firms)
Form depository for everything from parking space requests to IDs to computer hardware or health insurance
CRM - Go to Openntf.org and search for this and more.

For more ideas and discussions see Ed Brill's original post.

None of these require a Lotus Domino Server if you want to use a POP3 or IMAP email service.

And it will synch to your phone/Blackberry as well from your desktop.

Oh and Lotus Notes isn't dead, not now, not then, and Lotusphere is renewed for the next few years in Orlando AND R9 is planned already.

So if you really believe Lotus Notes is about email, maybe you just don't really understand what your email could be a part of in your life.

MEMO #2 - Would you accept it?

Would you accept an Null Error installation?!

This is all from a newly rebuilt server and I am wondering if something was left out of it's rebuilding.

Edited 1/2 hour later:
See previous post for explanation.

MEMO - Mysterious Error Messages Obviously

I hope NOT to install this problem!


Maybe this will be a new line of posts, MEMO's.

EDITED 1/2 hour later: Found reference in forums to an error after some further searching.

Explanation is:
Try removing C:\Program Files\Common Files\Installshield\Universal\Lotus* folders.
It will help in case this error is the result of the messed up installation.

Found we had 3 previous versions, including 802 listed, deleted them all and install went through fine.

Need a Lotus Business Partner? Find them now!

IBM has come out with the new Lotus Live website and it has something I and others have been asking for since, well... a long time.

For those that do not know what Lotus Live is, here is a brief IBM explanation:

With LotusLive, you can host online meetings, share files, chat, manage projects and network with potential clients, anywhere, anytime. Whether you work remotely, manage remote teams or just need one simple place to bring colleagues together, LotusLive allows you to collaborate beyond firewalls, in a securely-designed environment.

If you look at the right middle sidebar of the screen you will see a "Work with Business Partners" box and a link which says "Find a Business Partner".

Thank you to whomever inside IBM that has allowed customers to locate their nearest BP from a main page.

One must click on Search for a Business Partner and finally Find a Business Partner.

Enter a zip code or country and instant information. I see our address is out of date.

This is a nice touch from IBM, just wish it would show what specialty groups, in our case Lotus, would be nice to see next to our name. But it's a start.

My VOIP is back up

I had put out an SOS about my VOIP phone before coming to London.
The Inter-Tel(now part of Mitel and also discontinued/EOL) Model # 770.4500 is fine.The power pack for it, model # WND-2405-A however is only rated at 110v.

So what did I do since looking for a dual power supply was non-existent and a UK or European model doesn't exist? I did the next best thing.

I went to Radio Shack(Tandy in some parts still) and got this 85-Watt Foreign Travel AC Converter power converter.

One problem, it presumes I am going to be in Europe, not UK. So pick up another adapter, this time a EU to UK one and plug it in and it looks like this.



Note the foreground has an extension then the 3 plugs.
VOIP in left corner, router next to it, and on the floor a few meters of phone cables so I can string it properly.

Almost open for business again in the UK. Good thing too, as quite a few clients have suddenly woken up and are awaiting my help. Funny how they always want you when you aren't around :-)

The Wonders of Telecommuting

(GRUMBLE, GRUMBLE this was to be posted a few days ago)
Many of us do it, but few of our clients allow it, let alone prefer it.

Work remotely, telecommute. Sure a year or so ago the boss says we don't trust you do anything. Funny we always provide results, but who reads reports anyway.

Now, because of the economy, the notion of a remote worker is appealing because the company still gets tax benefits off of you, gain some real estate in the office, reduce salary line in budget(outsourcing goes under a different line item, which in some cases, like hiring a US company is tax beneficial), reduce benefits overhead, reduce pc/laptop and various connected items costs as well, which in turn reduces help desk calls and others.

IBM has been letting people work remotely, almost forced to do so in some cases for at least a dozen years now, probably the Lotus side has been doing it even longer.

So as I sit here in London and plan for a number of projects and meetings, our clients would not know I wasn't still in Boca Raton, if I didn't tell them. Remote access, Lotus Sametime, Skype, a US VOIP phone number and local UK SIM chip for my cell phone makes working global easy. So does a wireless router provided from my Internet company.

If your business hasn't done it yet, why not? Need help with it? Let me know I can help with the project plan that will blow your boss away. Be warned, this will not work if you have the pointy haired boss that only wants head count.

Fud Buster Friday #45 - Our Systems Never Go Down

Better late than never, as you can see I made it to the UK and have just now gotten my broadband hooked up at the house.

For anyone that still doesn't believe you need redundancy or clustering or whatever you prefer to call it, I leave you with this real lifer scenario.

A prominent cell phone telecom provider(T-) in the UK was down ALL day, basically from around 9am to after 5PM. While their service was sporadic for some people, I and my wife just had problems trying to get our phones and the new SIM chips to work.

So what should have been a 5 minute effort turned in to a 12 hour one. My wife's Blackberry only started getting email this morning. Mine didn't get proper configuration OTA until this afternoon when I had to manually change some email settings.

But the fact that T- answered their free phone call help service with "Sorry but our internal systems are down, can we help you with general questions" was not very helpful at all.

Nor was the 4 different people that I got disconnected from who claimed they would call me back. None ever called back.

Evidently their internal servers were either not set up for redundancy or for disaster planning. I have no idea if they had server issues or telecom issues, but either way, this is NOT how you ensure 100% uptime of your network.

So the next time someone says to you they don't need clustering or do not want to spend the money on a second server or enterprise license, do them a favor and figure it out for them and let them know they can pay you for it when they use it or lease them a backup box or co-location.

Living proof of this problem is everywhere, does you customer want to have these problems? Even Gmail has outages, but clustered Lotus Domino Servers don't have these problems. Well they do if you put all the clustered servers on the same VM machine as one of my Fortune 150 clients did and the VM fails.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

But I know when I will be back again....as soon as I get internet access in the UK.

By the time this posts we will be on our way.

Yes time for me to hop the pond and visit our fellow Lotus Bleeders in the UK and do the Workation. Some meetings lined up and speaking engagements too. Busy busy.

So if you are in London or Leeds or someplace in between let me know and we will get together sometime soon. And whoever sends out Lotus Beer tweets, include me for the next 2 months please.

What if Domino Could Scale?

Years ago, I and many others even more intelligent than I pondered what if we could build a Domino infrastructure to support a whole country, say 5 million people.

It was a great idea and a great project but we were told, in R5 era, we shouldn't do it. Not that we couldn't or at least try.

At the time I asked around in Product Management about this and was met with the usual reasons but no one actually stopped and said, perhaps we can try it. It was just presumed it couldn't do it.

The time has come(and some might argue this was behind the Workplace initiative)to scale the mountain and the country. If the client side is not working, the server side always has and maybe that is where we are going. Client agnostic, but server specific.

Just wondering as I learn more about Cloud offerings and companies which want to leverage the world's infrastructure not their own.

DAMO - Drop Anything Microsoft Owns

DAMO was laid to rest the other day and I just didn't have the heart to admit it.
You see DAMO helped me save numerous clients and ease some customers headaches.

The official announcement came out May 31st and is here.

It will continue to be integrated with Lotus Foundations and run with the current 8.5 Lotus Domino server but don't expect any new versions of it in the future.

Now we must move forward and expand our horizons and try new angles, new directions of thought without this crutch.

Is it really so important to try to convert Microsoft shops to Domino? What if the Domino shops do the converting for us instead?

When was the last time you saw an insurance company or bank or some other industry convention get up and say they use Domino to grow their business.

It's just not happenning enough. Maybe this is what is the next step in an ongoing battle for public domain eyes and ears. The customer sessions at Lotusphere should be the LCTY but to Industry events more in the future.

Fud Buster #44 - Well, Do Ya...Punk?

Feel lucky that is.

Have you been working hard on a project?
As hard as these guys did?

It wasn't luck that they built that application, though it may have been luck they landed the client. Read on to understand I am not knocking Jimmy, Scott and team.

But the truth is, your efforts are directly proportional to the outcome you receive. Maybe not every time, we can't all bat 1.000, but if you stay the course and plan for it, it will happen and you will get a better hitting average.

Could you build an application like that? Yes. Is it easy? No. If it was, we'd all do it. And one by one all the developers out there are trying to figure out too.

Me, I sent it to my sales people because I can only explain so much, but seeing is believing and seeing also sparks ideas in people's heads. But it has impressed on me what I have believed for some time, which is, if you build a demo, even a good mockup demo, it is still better for a client's vision than not sharing anything.

The time involved to make that demo perhaps is the "luck" you need to win that client over and get that project. Or in a different view, if you study up enough on your potential client, you may come up with something they never envisioned, but really want.

I was at a business networking meeting yesterday and a few people who noticed my Lotus logo or overheard me, talked to me about how great Lotus WAS when they worked with it. I explained that it still is great and they should revisit it. One of them asked me to demo something with them and will follow up with him to see if indeed we can do any business together. So lucky me to be in the right place at the right time? Or did my efforts in going to these meetings start to pay off?

So I'll ask you one more time, do you feel lucky?

PS - Unless I have time, next week there will not be a FBF due to my travel and internet issues.

Software Assurance and Non-Profits

This came in an email from Tech Soup today.
Sadly IBM has not put any Lotus Notes, Domino or even Symphony there.

See if you can spot the odd information and there are a few in this snippet from the email.
Plus there is a $25 or $27 handling charge for shipping it on top of this fee.
Presumably the prices below are per product ordered.
Microsoft milks money even from non-profits.

What Is Microsoft Software Assurance?

Software Assurance is a service offered by Microsoft that allows organizations – at no charge – to receive upgrades on most donated Microsoft software available through TechSoup for a period of two years. The only expense would be for shipment of discs if needed. In addition to the upgrade benefit, Software Assurance includes: access to software for home use; free, self-paced, interactive e-learning courses and trainings developed by Microsoft experts; backup software for disaster recovery; multilingual software packs, and more!
Request Software with Confidence

Now, there's no more waiting and wondering if a new version will come out and you'll have to shell out more dough to upgrade. Knowing that Software Assurance will cover Microsoft upgrades for the next two years, you can place your next request at TechSoup with confidence. For example, you'll receive Software Assurance benefits when you request donated Microsoft products such as:

* Windows XP Pro Upgrade ($8 admin fee)
* Vista Business Upgrade ($10 admin fee)
* Office Professional Plus 2007 ($20 admin fee)
* Office Professional 2003 ($20 admin fee)
* Office 2008 for Mac Standard ($16 admin fee)
* Project Professional 2007 ($40 admin fee)
* Small Business Server 2008 Premium ($62 admin fee)
* Windows Server 2008 Standard ($40 admin fee)
* Office Multi-Language Pack 2007 ($4 admin fee)
* Streets & Trips 2008 ($2 admin fee)
* ...and many more *

* Microsoft products donated through TechSoup have the phrase "Includes Software Assurance" on the specific product page for each item if it is an included benefit. Those that do not include that phrase, do not include the Software Assurance benefit.

Notes Floats, Outlook sticks

One of my favorite and long time R8 benefits has been floating windows.
What! You don't use these? You didn't know this exists either I bet.

When you are in your R8 Standard(Eclipse) client and you use the right sidebar tools, they can run with you.

It helps if you use multiple monitors.

So how do you do this? Why would you do this? What conceivable benefit is this to anyone?

First How to do it.

Open your client and sidebar. Pick one to make mobile so to speak.
Locate the left drop down icon, looks like this:


Then from the drop down select "Open in New Window" and watch it go mobile.Nice huh? To put it back, click on the same icon but select Dock.

I love it. Blows people away in my demo's.

So why would you do this and how beneficial is something like this?

Yes, you could run your client in one view and go back and forth between the sidebar items, but if you use many widgets or many different sidebar apps, I currently have 13 in my sidebar, not including a dozen or so Widgets in the Widget folder.

Now if you had multiple monitors you could break these out on 2 screens and work more efficiently, especially your worn out AA or even your favorite administrator. You don't need to keep a browser window open everywhere or multiple times. Oh and no more memory is used, at least that I can tell in my simple test just now.

It's saves me time and isn't that what software should do?

Got Cluster? Why not? Don't be lazy

For those who never think about it or believe it is the scariest thing on Earth, because they heard that from some monolithic vendors who only run on one OS, go set up your Lotus Domino clustering today.

Right now!

Why is this important? Maintain 100% uptime to the user community is the main reason. But it enables you to manage upgrades better, no scheduled outages as far as users are concerned. Disaster recovery, business continuity too.

This isn't new to R8 although some UI changes exist as well as enhancements to policies/configurations since clustering came out in R5.

Really, 7 clicks and you are done with the basic setup. Can you handle it?

Caveat, you MUST be running Enterprise server or you are out of luck. AND I am not detailing all the steps to ensure your files are replicated in this post or about selective clustering or options to think about. This is really a quick benefit put in simple terms.

Ok, I lied, not exactly 5 clicks and you do need a 2nd Lotus Domino Enterprise server available first as well.

1) Open your Administrator client to the Configuration tab, open the Servers twistie and Select All Server Documents.

2) Now check in the left column which one(s) you want to cluster. Don't be shy, you can put more than 2 in there at a time.

3)Click Yes at the confirmation window.
4)Select create new cluster.
5)Enter a Name for the Cluster (unique to identify it).
6)Select yes or no to have Adminp do everything for you.
7)Go over to the Files tab and click on the Database tab in the Right column and select Cluster. Now you get to decide which files are in and which files are out of the cluster and if it is in/out of service and is replication enabled.

Done. Really.

Don't believe it, go test it.

The left column has Cluster listed, expand that twistie and select Clusters, your cluster should be listed.

Want more detail?
Go to the Server tab and the Analysis sub-tab and then in the right side click on Analyze then Cluster.

This will set up the Cluster Analysis db so select what information you need to know and then make sure to click on Results Database to specify where to place the file.

In your notes.ini you might want to include the following:
RTR_logging=1
this will show all the cluster replication messages on the server console for those that love watching fast moving objects from their chairs.

There are way more choices and options to monitor, configure and check on the cluster but this is just another great reason why Domino makes life easier for admins and users.

More information available from the IBM Infocenter for R8 here.

And for those with a single server, we can work with you to provide backup for you on our nice Domino farm. Hurricane season is back so be prepared.

Microsoft steals the Lotus Background for Outlook 2010?

Seems to me that this looks very familiar if you have seen Lotus Notes R8. tell me what you think?



And they chose Yellow too! From ZDnet posting



Close enough to me to wonder if this means anything at all.

Look at the second picture on their site which shows the client and tell me who is playing catch up?

Engaging Conversation with Writers and Notes UI

By now you have seen or heard the article from CRN that Ed blogged about.

I have been emailing with the author, Samara Lynn, as have others about the article. It is nice to see good news about Lotus Domino. What is interesting is they did not have IBM or Microsoft go in and do the work, they did it all by themselves in their lab. It was truly enlightening to see unknowing people try to install Domino and make heads or tales out of it....and truly appreciate it.

Yes they mixed up clients and server names, I commented on the article about that, but equally of interest was the lack of awareness of basic Lotus Notes aspects which have been available for some time. Like client side security.

In other words, if a benefit or tool isn't obvious in some way, most people will not go investigating for it. Hint to MBR's team.

One point which maybe should be made is the color scheme of the older Notes clients may be at fault as perhaps the yellow/brown/grey look has an older appearance. If you are using R8 do yourself a favor and change the theme in your preferences. Also go to the new and nice looking openntf.org and grab this Themes for Lotus Notes.

Oh and let me know if Outlook 2010 can undock your calendar or contacts or widgets like the R8 client. Flexibility in an email client is very important to me and probably to some of your clients.

So while I and others pointed out some odd references and the article covered various topics, I felt it left more to be discussed.

Luckily they are keeping the server up and running and will be doing more reviews as well. I provided some ideas but the only one I REALLY want to see come out properly is what it costs someone in Microsoft products and money to equal 1 Domino server running Sametime on it as well.

Hardware costs alone would defeat Microsoft but who thinks about hardware, maintenance and licensing are like death and taxes.

In case you need a reminder of how much and which pieces, I should update it a bit since Groove is renamed and some items have shifted during packaging, I had listed some of it in this post. Yes I know you don't require all of them but trying to compare Apples to Apples.

Small Beers or Increased Sales?

While staring at a Coronita Extra which for those who have no idea what this is, it's a Corona Beer, in a 7 ounce size.
Why would anyone in their right mind order or buy these smaller than a soda drinks.
What was Cerveceria Modelo thinking anyway?

They were thinking in a down economy, we need to sell beer. Or in a place where regular size might be too expensive, at least you can get some beer, albeit in a mini size.

What about applications? How do you downsize them for this economy? Should you?
Do you take smaller steps in your project? Do you do more POC(Proof of Concept)?

No, I think in this case, Coronita was a bad idea(I know they make money on it but I'd love to find out more about why it came to be) because your market will always want your beer. Try selling 4 packs instead of 6 perhaps?

Applications and projects serve a purpose that on the whole provides for a better economic situation once delivered if properly thought out and planned.

So go out there and have a tall cold one and aim for the big project, push for it even!

Fud Buster Friday #43 - Microsoft Cares About You

The truth is further than you can imagine.

Bill is gone from active duty and it was nice of him to put his old buddy in charge of the company but somehow throwing chairs and tantrums isn't what people expect from Microsoft. Oracle's owner perhaps.

A company that wanted to spend $44.6 BILLION on Yahoo! wants to help you and your business? Or do they want to limit your choices as they have over the last 20 or so years by forcing good companies to fail because of various means, both good and bad in the fields of:

Word Processing
Desktop Software
Network Server Software
Database Software
Spreadsheet Software
Operating Systems
Internet Browsers

I could go on, put pending legal actions may limit my list to the general known topics.

Sure they promise to give you free training, perhaps.

Outlook is free as part of Office? Right? Try again, as readers know you still must pay a CAL for each user connecting to Exchange, plus the other CALs that get added on top as well.

Microsoft provides excellent software right? That's why they admit Vista was a bad idea and you should be looking at Windows 7, right?
Because when Windows 7 ships(ETA is Dec 2009) it will be ready to go?

Oh and evidently Exchange 2007? Never mind either, proceed directly to the beta of Exchange 2010.
Because, again, when and if this comes out Dec 2009 it will be ready?

So maybe Microsoft is finally catching on that you can't have 3-5 year gaps between software updates.

Does that worry you out there? The company which says security is their number one concern continues to put out patches regularly for software exploits.

Do they really want to make your world better? Or are they running scared because Google, IBM and others have broken their piggy bank of Enterprise Agreements and maintenance fees for nothing?

What if they just can't come up with an original idea any more. Wait, they never had one, they have bought everything they sell. That was real business genius, really I am not jesting, they saw the diamond in the rough.

The problem is they rarely create something fresh and new on their own. Compared to Google.

So who cares about you? I do, and you should, but giving your money to Microsoft blindingly following them down a path of least resistance will not save you later in life.

Google Wave and Today's IBM DP Call

I know we didn't compare the 2, but I kept thinking has anyone watched the video inside of IBM yet? Of course they have, they'd be crazy not to.

Wave is impressive. How it works and what the User Experience is like is nice. The UI, not so great, very "Google bland" but if that works for you, why change it.

Would love to know what the back end looks like, but so does everyone else want to understand Google's server armies. Also how do you manage it, administrate it, all without a proper Directory?

Some of what we discussed on the DP call will be impressive to everyone when it comes out. And the products are becoming more like what every day users expect to see.

The problem which I am pondering is, and this came out in the DP call, how to convince companies that a "fixed" or "set" desktop model is not practical anymore.

Someone stated companies do not want yet another install to add to their desktops. I think they don't realize that it's not just one more install, it's a bunch of them and they are called updates and come out almost daily if you look at every product your company uses.

Unless you update your fixed desktop model monthly, which for 95% of all companies is beyond their imagination although well within their capabilities, your company probably has limited end users capabilities in ways which probably cost your business time, money and resources every minmute of every day.

This must stop.

I respect you have ancient systems that will break, or modern ones which were hard coded to IE6 or Java 1.4.2.8a-1 or some other hangup...and of course money issues. The problem from everyone so far has been a products fault, not theirs. No one ever says we need to spend the money to rewrite it. It's like brakes on your car, waiting until they don't stop your car is too late.

Will Facebook harm your network? Perhaps but as I found out today, so can a local non-profit organization website that got hacked.

Google Wave might be cool and new but will it make it into corporate environments? Unknown.

Will it get blocked? Perhaps.

Should you as an IT person be scared of it? No more than anything else out there.

Yet.

Quickr 8.2 licensing bothers me

My thoughts around the Lotus Quickr 8.2 requirement around Lotus Domino 8.5 garnered a few interesting discussions and thoughts.

I am not a master of licensing but this strikes me as odd.

One question I posited was how does IBM license this?

I was pointed to this IBM license agreement for Quickr 8.2 by an IBMer.

As I understand it I am entitled to Domino 8.5 in order to install Quickr but not to use Domino for any other purpose?! An interesting idea since mail must flow, websites must run, both using Domino, which is already serving these purposes, does this negate the license agreement if they are not working with Quickr? Evidently, but why is IBM hampering SMB clients this way?

Are you prevented from using Domino this way thus requiring my SMB client to buy a second server for Quickr and maintain a separate server for email too?

What if they want to use Quickr now?
What if they are only on R6 right now? Does running an 8.5 server with DAOS and a names.nsf template from R6.5.x work properly?
Are you allowed to use the 8.5 template for names.nsf on your R6 server and across your domain? Or must it stay in a stand alone mode?

Or if they have an existing server, say Domino Enterprise Edition for 8.5 for example, by buying the license to Quickr 8.2 is IBM basically double billing, well let's say, double reporting licenses? Do these licenses count to the grand total announced at Lotusphere? Do IBM sales reps get these added to their commission checks and target goals?

Isn't this what Microsoft does as well that we complain about (and I have posted about)?

You can argue this is how it has always been and we should pay more careful attention to our license agreements in the future, but this, to me, just seems like something is odd. Or business as usual.

It's been a while since I was forced to ONLY use one version of a product with another.

Lastly, who thought of naming a version of Quickr which is in sync with Domino at 8.5, but call it instead the easy to remember Quickr 8.2?

Quickr 8.2 REQUIRES Lotus Domino 8.5

Just in case you never read anything or wait until you get to work on it.
Wanted to make this clear for everyone.

Those of you who stopped paying maintenance before 8.5, not sure what to tell you. An interesting predicament you and IBM find yourselves.

Technote with all the details is #7015852 found here.

Some highlights:

Windows 2008, 32 bit only
Windows 2003(and R2), 32 bit only

Domino 8.5, 32 bit only
LDAP from R7 and R8 Domino servers, among other 3rd party ones
Active Directory 2003

Sametime 7.5.1, 8.0.1, 8.0.2

The Claw is My Master

Nice wide screen view of a webpage,
click on the link to the trailer,
which is hosted by Apple.

http://disney.go.com/toystory/



My kids are very happy.