Could this fly?
by florian vogler :: IBM
Short before Christmas, this is an interesting read at the end of 2008 - and the beginning of the new year 2009.
In a letter to IBM, Ian Tree suggests to open source Notes Domino. I do not dare to ask whether this will actually fly, but more so whether it could if it would. What do you think?
btw, Ian also has some nice tech stuff, like this one explaining how to best get a document's response documents using the C-API.
In a letter to IBM, Ian Tree suggests to open source Notes Domino. I do not dare to ask whether this will actually fly, but more so whether it could if it would. What do you think?
btw, Ian also has some nice tech stuff, like this one explaining how to best get a document's response documents using the C-API.
Comments
Florian Vogler, 2008-12-21 22:12
Imagine what would happen if companies could offer desktop/bookmark/replicator page replacements, or customized template management solutions (through round-trippable DXL for example - Ian has a great example on virtualized templates on his blog, too).
In theory an entirely "skinnable / extendable / reworkable Notes frontend-wise".
Similar to the power of the Extention Manager, alternative "parts" (I would want to call them components, but that's already used elsewhere) would imo benefit both Notes customers, business partners, and IBM.
Plugins already are kind of a step into this direction, where things could really flourish if more / most / all of the underlying data structures were open and documented - be it ODS, the many standard client XML files, desktop*.ndk, bookmark.nsf, etc.
I guess this, too, boils down to round-trippable, validatable/validated XML, so that it doesn't turn into a support nightmare for IBM ...
The huge challenge, however, is that many of the parts I would love to see open(ed) are so much connected to other parts, that I fear this, too, will remain wishful thinking.
Florian Vogler, 2008-12-21 20:34
If Opensource is the cure for everything then I keep asking myself why Microsoft Office still has the market share it has today although OpenOffice feature wise is considered a viable alternative for years?
Or Novell that is transforming themselves from big business to a niche player? I am not against Open Source I just doubt that it will have much influence on the success of Lotus Notes and Domino.
By the way Steve Mills is not famous for being a Notes fan anyway.
Henning Heinz, 2008-12-21 16:09