Don Harbison, Domino Marketing Manager, Enterprise Server, Platforms, & Performance, in an interview with ZDNet, took paintbrush to Lotus' plans.
Domino 5.0.3 is on schedule for a late 1999 release. From user's point of view, the Linux Domino server will look and work just like any other Domino server. The Linux version will also have built-in connectivity with Oracle's Oracle 8.0x and IBM's DB2. This new functionality is designed to enable Domino programmers to create elaborate Notes and Web compliant e-commerce and data processing applications.
Harbison says that Lotus has "a long term commitment to Domino on Linux." As well Lotus should, since Harbison states that Lotus Business Partners have been asking for Domino on Linux since 1998 and that the demand has been increasing. One major partner, Harbison noted, is planning on deploying Domino in an application hosting service.
Beyond Domino, Lotus will also be releasing its SameTime 2.0 real-time collaboration software and QuickPlace 2.0 collaborative teamware program on Linux in the first half of 2000.
No Embraces Here
Despite parent company IBM's continuing move towards open source, Lotus is only reluctantly embracing the open source movement. There are, for example, no plans whatsoever to move Domino to open source. Indeed, Lotus has no concrete plans to take any programs at this time to open source. Products that would be suited for such a move, though, include the eSuite development suite and LearningSpace, an online education development package.
What Lotus won't be doing, however, is bringing the Lotus Notes client or SmartSuite Millennium Edition 9.5 office suite to Linux. Users looking to using Lotus applications on their KDE or Gnome desktops can forget about seeing Linux ports of these--at least for the immediate future.
