I've had it on my mind for some time to blog about this topic, but Peter beat me to it with an excellent post today.
While my consulting work puts me in touch with end users, pacesetters, and decision makers, I rarely consider Notes from the development perspective. The only developers I interact with are those on my team. Written from a developer perspective, "Why I love Lotus Notes" is Peter's effort to share the features of Lotus Notes that he loves and the value he gets from the community. It's an excellent post and I hope it will inspire others to blog about what they love about Notes.
There are many things I love about Notes. Near the top of my list would have to be: ease of use and customization, replication, off-line access, and security. I'll try to blog about these from perspective soon.
Meanwhile, I see great value in multiple perspectives and I'm glad Peter shared his. I'm collecting thoughts from my own perspective to share. I hope you will consider sharing yours. Perhaps we can start a meme.
What do you love about Notes?
Note to my readers: Please help me keep the comment thread on-topic, in this case, on the productive use of Lotus Notes. If you want to post a comment about something you like, you are welcome to do so. If you want to rant, I invite you to articulate your feelings and opinions on your own blog. Please do not use this comment thread for that purpose. Inappropriate comments will be removed. I'm interested in reading about the value people are getting from Notes and how they are using Notes to improve their personal and work group productivity.
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Discussion/Comments (4):
I know I have mentioned this previously, but the fact that applications developed 20 years ago can still run today in Lotus Notes without change. And the confidence inspired by an unbroken track record and commitment by IBM to support backward compatibility.
I know that there is also a negative aspect of this unique feature (not keeping up with contemporary trends or user expectations), but let's focus for a moment on the positive aspects of this for once.
How many executive sponsors of a commercial development project would be truly delighted with the notion that an application they are funding today will be able to continue to operate FOREVER, without forcing them to fund ongoing enhancements or bug fixes (caused by sloppy vendor changes)over many many years?
In other words if the code ain't broken they don't need to pay to fix it.
Eric Mack (www.ica.com): 6/16/2010 5:11:05 PM
I know what you mean, Ian. I have a Notes application that I cobbled together in 1993. It's as ugly as, well, let's just say that it looks like Windows for Workgroups. But IT WORKS and it has been running flawlessly for 17 YEARS. I know I could update the UI but it does the job and the ROI continues.
Ian Randall (): 6/16/2010 5:47:12 PM
Exactly, but the main benefit of rock solid backward compatibility, is the aviodance of a huge ongoing maintenance and development cost.
In addition, the rip & replace alternative slows down receiving the benefits of system upgrades due to the high ongoing maintenance cost and the extensive testing time required.
I know that people like shiny & new, but at least with Lotus Notes it's a choice, not something that is forced down your throat.
Betsy Thiede (): 6/17/2010 9:22:39 AM
I love Lotus Notes because it is so much fun. Even the work-arounds are fun. I love that my boss can ask for something and I develop it fast and look like a super smart person. Even though I am a moron..