[LINK] Lotus Notes 8.5 to fully support Ubuntu Linux 7.0

[Bernard Robertson-Dunn]

Lotus Notes 8.5 to fully support Ubuntu Linux 7.0
IBM says end users with 100,000 desktops looking at Ubuntu Linux
By Todd R. Weiss
Computerworld
http://www.computerworlduk.com/technology/applications/enterprise/news/index.cfm?newsid=7193&print

IBM believes Linux on the enterprise desktop finally ready for 
widespread adoption. To meet future demand it is preparing to deliver 
its next versions of Lotus Notes enterprise collaboration software and 
Lotus Symphony office productivity applications for the first time with 
full support for Ubuntu Linux 7.0.

The roll out will occur sometime in the second half of this year.

In an announcement this week at the Lotusphere 2008 conference in 
Orlando, IBM said that it will provide full support for Ubuntu Linux 
with Lotus Notes 8.5 and Lotus Symphony using its Open Collaboration 
Client software, which is based on open standards.

Antony Satyadas, chief competitive marketing officer for IBM Lotus, said 
the Ubuntu support for Notes and Symphony were a direct response to 
demand from customers. Lotus Notes 8.0.1 has limited support for Ubuntu 
Linux, but customers have asked for broader capabilities, he said.

"We're doing pilots with customers now," Satyadas said. "Some of the 
requests came from big companies" with as many as 100,000 users that are 
interested in moving to Ubuntu Linux on the desktop.

"The other thing we are seeing is some interesting patterns evolving 
here," he said. "It starts with a very small company looking at Linux, 
and then there are really large companies that are starting out small 
with 500 [Linux desktop] users, then moving up to 2,000 or more. That is 
the pattern we are seeing."

Although some industry experts have been proclaiming for the last six 
years that Linux on the corporate desktop was finally ready, IBM thinks 
that this year, it will happen.

IBM said in the past that Linux on the corporate desktop wouldn't happen 
until the operating system was good enough to allow companies to have 
all the functions they need to run their businesses. At the same time, 
an adequate supply of critical business software that would run reliably 
and efficiently on Linux would be needed.

"We are putting our money where our mouth is," Satyadas said. "We think 
now the time is really[here]" and the needed business applications are 
available to make it work for enterprises.

"We use it (Linux) ourselves. We are able to offer a secure, rich and 
cost-effective Microsoft alternative."

The Open Collaboration Client software includes advanced e-mail and 
calendar capabilities, unified communication and collaboration functions 
and general word processing, spreadsheet and presentation capabilities 
with Open Document Format (ODF) support. The Open Collaboration Client 
is built on Lotus Expeditor, which is based on the open source Eclipse 
Rich Client Platform.

Mark Murphy, vice president of alliances for Canonical, the commercial 
sponsor of Ubuntu Linux, said that the availability of Notes and 
Symphony for use with Ubuntu will be a "win for customers everywhere. 
Canonical is committed to bringing the best available productivity tools 
to its users on an open platform.

“Ubuntu users will now have an outstanding choice with Lotus Notes, 
while businesses will have a great choice with Lotus Domino. From a 
technical viewpoint, we are impressed how Lotus leverages the Eclipse 
platform to build and deliver rich client applications. This is an 
exciting development for Ubuntu users, too.

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Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Sydney Australia
brd at iimetro.com.au