Lotus Notes clients on Mac
Tuesday 22nd January, 2008It would seem to download a new client would not be as hard as one would think, but it appears there was two files that were posted Sunday afternoon and later Sunday evening. Inadvertently a Domino server install for Solaris was posted but it was updated later that day. In my case remotely logged into my home network a la "Back to My Mac" to download the files. Here in Orlando the traffic was very slow and I would have to wait up to 5 hours.
By Monday evening, I was able to download the installation files for the Lotus Notes basic client (also known as the C++ application) and the Lotus Notes standard client (eclipse version). Though I have not upgraded my mail server to Domino 8, I can still check out the new application features and compare the client end performance to the 7.0.3 Lotus Notes client I was previously using. My first actions was to talk the dmg install for the Lotus Notes basic application. The software had the smarts to know that it was going to upgrade my existing installation. Cosmetically it looks very similar in layout though all the client icons and toolbars were updated and is a refreshing look. The client had an icon to denote that I had new and unread mail. There was even an icon on the top upper right corner to denote when I receive new mail. After posting my feedback from a Jumpstart session I decided that I would move to the eclipse install.
The eclipse application is much larger in the footprint by about 100 MB more. The installation, as well, had the smarts to upgrade the existing application. The installation took about 15 minutes to install, but I did not watch it install as I was catching up on the evening news. After the installation completed, I started the application and saw the new splash screen. I noticed that when the application was in my Mac dock the mouse over name was "java". So I hope this will be cleaned up in the GA release. The icons was just as pretty as the basic client, but the UI is very different. It looks very similar to the Windows and Linux R8 clients. It also has the sidebar as well which has links to Sametime, RSS feeds, and my calendar.
The Lotus Notes icon in both clients shown in the Mac dock is more rounded. It also has a smaller number in the lower right to denote the count of unread mail. As I have a server in Texas which I lease (it is a linux provider which is not a traditional LN host provider), I did see the normal lag when connecting to my "home server". The biggest change I saw in the standard client is that I can not replace the database design as I would in R7 and less version clients. I did catch that the Database node within the File Menu is replaced with Application. The only delay I am experiencing is when I am typing in the rich text editor. As I am a fast typist, I was able to get ahead to what was being displayed on the screen. The Mac client allows the OS to do the normal dictionary spell checking which is normal within Leopard (10.5). The rich text editor seems to be similar to my experience with the Linux Lotus Notes standard client.
I am sure I am going to learn more as I continue use the application. I am going to plan to do a Domino server upgrade to R8 when I have some free time.
By Monday evening, I was able to download the installation files for the Lotus Notes basic client (also known as the C++ application) and the Lotus Notes standard client (eclipse version). Though I have not upgraded my mail server to Domino 8, I can still check out the new application features and compare the client end performance to the 7.0.3 Lotus Notes client I was previously using. My first actions was to talk the dmg install for the Lotus Notes basic application. The software had the smarts to know that it was going to upgrade my existing installation. Cosmetically it looks very similar in layout though all the client icons and toolbars were updated and is a refreshing look. The client had an icon to denote that I had new and unread mail. There was even an icon on the top upper right corner to denote when I receive new mail. After posting my feedback from a Jumpstart session I decided that I would move to the eclipse install.
The eclipse application is much larger in the footprint by about 100 MB more. The installation, as well, had the smarts to upgrade the existing application. The installation took about 15 minutes to install, but I did not watch it install as I was catching up on the evening news. After the installation completed, I started the application and saw the new splash screen. I noticed that when the application was in my Mac dock the mouse over name was "java". So I hope this will be cleaned up in the GA release. The icons was just as pretty as the basic client, but the UI is very different. It looks very similar to the Windows and Linux R8 clients. It also has the sidebar as well which has links to Sametime, RSS feeds, and my calendar.
The Lotus Notes icon in both clients shown in the Mac dock is more rounded. It also has a smaller number in the lower right to denote the count of unread mail. As I have a server in Texas which I lease (it is a linux provider which is not a traditional LN host provider), I did see the normal lag when connecting to my "home server". The biggest change I saw in the standard client is that I can not replace the database design as I would in R7 and less version clients. I did catch that the Database node within the File Menu is replaced with Application. The only delay I am experiencing is when I am typing in the rich text editor. As I am a fast typist, I was able to get ahead to what was being displayed on the screen. The Mac client allows the OS to do the normal dictionary spell checking which is normal within Leopard (10.5). The rich text editor seems to be similar to my experience with the Linux Lotus Notes standard client.
I am sure I am going to learn more as I continue use the application. I am going to plan to do a Domino server upgrade to R8 when I have some free time.
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