Last week IBM Forum Israel hosted a Collaboration Event, with Ed Brill, WW Lotus Sales Manager for Software Group. The event was the second time I got to know Lotus Notes 8, the new (and still in Beta) version of IBM’s email client, Notes 7.
After some chats with technical colleagues from SWG I decided to download the beta version, a hugh 1GB file, that occupies some 1.6GB installed… not for everyone.. I backup all my C:/notes/data directory (another 4GB), and then started the process. Good to know that Lotus are thinking of bi-directional (bi-di) languages, and the installation was in Hebrew.. cute.
My first impression was very good. The new UI (user interface) is cool, good colors, web 2.0 kind of icons and some great improvements to the calendar and contacts views. It worked well, at first, but slower than my Notes 7. There was a delay between the actual click and the action itself, although the machine never froze, and you could work on other views while the inbox was refreshing. Some of my DB took a little longer to open, but I guess that an increased RAM would make it better (my T41 have 1GB, with Intel Pentium M 1.7GHz).
I roll backed to Notes 7 after a week of usage, for 2 main reasons:
First – the speed. Maybe an additional 512MB would make it better. 1GB would make a hugh difference. But with the current specs, it’s just too weak to support Notes 8.
Secondly, I think it’s a glitch in the system, surely not intentional, but I couldn’t switch my keyboard with Alt+Shift between Hebrew/English. Just didn’t work. Only in Notes 8. I had to go to the language bar and switch from there. Bothering, although I know the guys from SWG are ‘living’ like this for 2-3 months now… so it’s not that bad.
Once Notes 8 is official, I’ll definitely upgarde, but only after a 1GB boost to my RAM. Notes 8 is much more friendly, user interface is excellent and the collaboration options – which I haven’t elaborated, but you can read all about them here – are phenomenal. And I haven’t mentioned the possibility to create/edit Office documents, in Notes, what IBM is calling ‘productivity tools’.
Notes is climbing. Fast.
Thanks for the feedback. I have 1 GB on my laptop and find that most things work, but yes, could be faster (which I think as as much the 3-year-old processor as the RAM situation).
Let me know if you take another look.
–Ed
I admit Notes 8 has its better moments, but sometimes it can be frustrating..
The Hebrew issue (with Alt+Shift) is also troubling, but I guess it’s only a glitch that will be fixed soon.
Will keep you (and everyone else 😉 posted.
Dvir.