Lotus Notes Mail - The Gems And The Warts
August 31 2010 08:30:00 AM
Add/Read Comments [9]
Every time I hear some "2.0 evangelist" sing the praises of Gmail my stomach churns a little, my heartbeat quickens and my face tenses as I ponder what could have been if more attention had been paid to the Notes UI years ago. I both enjoy and hate giving the "Lotus Notes did that a decade ago" speech. I enjoy it because I like showing people that these awesome new features are neither new nor innovative. I hate it because it reinforces how IBM was never successful in getting people to like using Lotus Notes. Gmail is perceived as lightweight, simple and clean while the Lotus Notes desktop client is large and clunky and complicated. Sadly, few people know that Notes mail can be accessed via a very nice web UI.
What Gmail does so well is focus on the everyday use cases that 99% of people need. Simple email. Simple calendar forms and views. Simple search. Gmail also has the advantage of requiring no installation, meaning people always having the latest and greatest version. Find me a single Notes user (other than a Developer or Admin) who understands how to upgrade their client and mail file template. Gmail Labs makes it simple to turn on cool new (experimental) features, find me a Notes user who understands installing eclipse sidebar plugins.
So in the wake of all the excitement over Gmail adding a categorized inbox (something IBM's mail template has had for a decade, I think OpenNTF Mail experience may have it as well), I was thinking about the cool things that Notes mail does that most other email clients do not. Here is a quick list off the top of my head.
- SwiftFile
- QuickRule
- Intelligent mail addressing (I love how Notes bubble up the names you use more often rather than just pattern matching)
- Full offline support, including directory catalog
- Livetext and sidebar widgets
- Convert email message to calendar entry
- Create distribution list (group) from email recipients
- rich text is simple to add, ex: tables
The problem is, while these are all great, they are fringe features that I guarantee few people use. Notes does a lot of powerful things, but does not do some of the simple things well*. For example, look at how complicated the calendar form is or how odd search behaves compared to other services people use. (* I've not used Notes for a while, so correct me if I'm wrong)
I use Gmail/Gcalendar/Gchat at work and while I do miss the features listed above, I do not miss the complexity of Notes.
Thoughts?
What Gmail does so well is focus on the everyday use cases that 99% of people need. Simple email. Simple calendar forms and views. Simple search. Gmail also has the advantage of requiring no installation, meaning people always having the latest and greatest version. Find me a single Notes user (other than a Developer or Admin) who understands how to upgrade their client and mail file template. Gmail Labs makes it simple to turn on cool new (experimental) features, find me a Notes user who understands installing eclipse sidebar plugins.
So in the wake of all the excitement over Gmail adding a categorized inbox (something IBM's mail template has had for a decade, I think OpenNTF Mail experience may have it as well), I was thinking about the cool things that Notes mail does that most other email clients do not. Here is a quick list off the top of my head.
- SwiftFile
- QuickRule
- Intelligent mail addressing (I love how Notes bubble up the names you use more often rather than just pattern matching)
- Full offline support, including directory catalog
- Livetext and sidebar widgets
- Convert email message to calendar entry
- Create distribution list (group) from email recipients
- rich text is simple to add, ex: tables
The problem is, while these are all great, they are fringe features that I guarantee few people use. Notes does a lot of powerful things, but does not do some of the simple things well*. For example, look at how complicated the calendar form is or how odd search behaves compared to other services people use. (* I've not used Notes for a while, so correct me if I'm wrong)
I use Gmail/Gcalendar/Gchat at work and while I do miss the features listed above, I do not miss the complexity of Notes.
Thoughts?
