

IBM takes on Google and Microsoft with a cloud based service called IBM Docs   - playhard
https://greenhouse.lotus.com/wpsgh/wcm/connect/lotus+greenhouse/lotus+greenhouse+next+site/home/labs/ibm+docs

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bwarp
I think the word "Lotus" on this is going to kill it dead before it even gets
of the ground. There is almost universal hatred for that brand (other than
from a few people who paid for it and don't have to use products from that
division of IBM).

It's literally like branding your new product with swastikas.

~~~
omh
IBM is in the process of removing the Lotus brand from everything. This
'Greenhouse' is a test bed for the "Lotus" community and hasn't gone through
the rebranding yet.

I'm sure that when they release this properly it won't have the dreaded L-word
anywhere near it.

This has been a long-running saga within the IBM/Lotus community for years
now. It's obviously a toxic brand, but it's taken them a while to start
clearing it out. I think they're still working out how to brand the next
version of Lotus Notes.

(Yes, Lotus Notes is still widely used. Reluctant Notes/Domino admin here).

~~~
bwarp
That's only because people are widely "stuck with it". I've not seen a single
organisation in the last 10 years that has done a new deployment. It's always
been hanging on by a thread, usually along with some Netware and occasionally
DEC estate and some serious 10base2 mileage. "We'll fix it one day" etc.

~~~
omh
I looked at migrating when we did our last e-mail server upgrade, but the cost
of moving to Exchange vs upgrading Notes just wasn't worth it. The latest
version isn't so bad for general groupware type stuff.

For a new deployment I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole though.

~~~
hello_moto
This is what I heard as well from consultants: moving from Notes to Exchange
don't yield more benefit or safe money.

~~~
bwarp
I bet that was heard from Notes consultants...

~~~
hello_moto
He does both Notes and Exchange including migrations to or from and vice
versa.

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burriko
Welcome to the cloud. Where you still have to manually save your documents by
clicking on a floppy disk icon.

Somehow I don't think Google need to worry.

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eblackburn
I love how all IBM software looks like a 2001 university project hacked
together the night before a deadline in Java.

~~~
virmundi
Looking at the screen shot it looks a lot like EverNote. I think the screen is
designed to be clean,if not a tad boring. But there is nothing wrong with
that.

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libria
<https://greenhouse.lotus.com/ghouse.nav/header.js>

Their javascript writes javascript which writes HTML/XML? For their sanity, I
hope that's generated somehow.

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ilcavero
IBM is in no position to compete with Google or even Microsoft on this marker,
it targets the slow and big companies that want "their own facebook" or their
own "google docs" on their intranet, so don't expect this to be a consumer
level offering even if it is on the "cloud".

~~~
brudgers
I completely disagree about competing with Google and Microsoft.

Google's weakness in the enterprise productivity software market segment is
that they have no track record of providing stability via long term backward
compatibility and support for obsolescent software - e.g. the Chrome Browser.
Furthermore, the enterprise market is not a significant piece of the core
strategy - it just doesn't grow fast enough and it requires the dedication of
a highly trained salesforce and a commitment to long term support of each
software release.

IBM can compete with Microsoft on the same basis as they have for the past
twenty years - as an ecosystem.

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shrikant
Is IBM really serious about the office productivity space? There doesn't seem
to be any buzz around their desktop offering, Lotus Symphony. [1]

When I last tried it, Symphony was slow and clunky to use, and miles behind
LibreOffice (!) in usability.

Or is there some uber-visionary long-term play going on here? I certainly
don't see it.

[1] <http://www-03.ibm.com/software/lotus/symphony/home.nsf/home>

~~~
omh
This is part of a wider collaboration strategy from IBM.

As well as Notes, they have a "Connections" platform which is a combination of
document sharing, facebook-style profiles and a few other things for internal
corporate intranets. From the demos I've seen it's relatively nice, as
enterprise software goes. From last month's "Lotusphere" conference it sounds
like they're adding document editing to this, and aiming to move everything
(including email) to an integrate web-based system. I think they're selling it
as either onsite or hosted.

Edit: Sorry for how corporate that sounds. I guess that's just how my mind
goes when I start thinking about IBM software!

~~~
jdp23
The same thing happened to me last month. I was writing up something right
after reading a few IBM Tivoli and Websphere white papers and suddenly noticed
I was talking corpspeak without even realizing it.

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slig
I clicked around and got to a sign in page called "Welcome to IBM
Connections". Couldn't find where to sign up or even if I can. Closed.

~~~
peq
I found a page where I could create an account but that account does not work
on the login for the docs-page.

If they can't even do a user friendly login, how can they make a good document
editor?

~~~
slig
They can sell anything, even stuff that is not friendly nor good. See the
hatred for Lotus Notes.

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zerop
I see "Duplicate headers received from server", When I click on icon. only on
chrome... Please fix it or put "alpha release "on top....

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clowder
Although there is a picture of someone editing a file the functionality seems
to be missing from the site and its not shown off in their demo video.

[http://public.dhe.ibm.com/software/dw/lotus/connections30/de...](http://public.dhe.ibm.com/software/dw/lotus/connections30/demos/files/files_demo.html)

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podman
Based on the screenshots, it looks like it's flash/flex based. I can't
actually get it to works so I can't verify that. Are they serious? I guess
they don't plan on having any good mobile support.

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Jayasimhan
Won't accept gmail and yahoo emails and has a mandatory company name field. It
not just 'not targeted towards consumer market', its a 'we don't want the
consumer market'.

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namidark
Whenever I try and view a document in Chrome (OSX) I get a
net::ERR_RESPONSE_HEADERS_MULTIPLE_CONTENT_DISPOSITION :(

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zerop
Sell this to enterprises who love your sloppy stuff like WAS..

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badclient
How did people collaborate on documents before google docs?

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a_a_r_o_n
By sending Word/Excel/etc documents around in email, turning on revisions, and
having endless discussions on which version is current.

We still do that now.

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perfunctory
Did anybody try it already?

