What is the deal with IBM and this Lotus Notes fetish?! I’ve now been administering (user level only) Lotus Notes for almost two years now and I still don’t get it. Lotus Notes is a real piece of work. It was apparently designed by programmers to support programmers needs. It was originally developed for IBM’s dead OS/2 platform. It makes no attempt whatsoever to work like the operating systems it runs on. Its basically a database viewer.

Its a nightmare of operation and integration. I will take a stab at a metaphorical description: Its like adding each version of Windows from 1.0 to 3.0 together without removing redundant elements, mixing in some UNIX but changing it so its no longer familiar, slapping an SQL database in the trunk, letting Animal from the Muppets modify the code, and then requiring that it call Richard Nixon on the phone to get the latest data.

Mad, I tell you. Mad!

I can’t help but think that the estimated 118 million users were all forced into using Lotus Notes, as we were at my office. We were shoved into it by an excruciating need of the US Federal Government to regulate enterprise via the Sarbannes-Oxley mandate in an effort to prevent another Enron. If you ask me, all of the SOX crap will just mask any such efforts and make it easier for the scum to get away with it again!

We have over 6,500 users in North America. Every single one I have spoken to (nearly 600) says something like this to me,”Have I mentioned I hate Lotus Notes?” Yes, I say. You have. Several times. I could have sworn to you that I would never string the following words together over my dead body, but here goes: I’d take Microsoft Exchange Server and Outlook over Lotus Notes any day!

Oh! Yes. I know Richard Nixon is dead.

Purchase this and related items at Amazon now: