look and feel of the email/calendaring/scheduling of the Notes 8 client without resorting to Outlook / Outlook Express.
It's not an easy thing to do. So far I've come up with two solutions that come close but they've required a lot of tweaking and integration.
Solution number one is a totally web based solution. Since I have a Gmail account it's built around a number of Google technologies.
The screenshot to the left is my Gmail interface – tweaked with several new Google Labs options. The Google Calendar gadget and Google Docs gadget allow me to view and access my Google Calendar and Documents files directly from the Gmail screen. The Navbar Drag and Drop option lets me move Google Talk gadget and Labels gadget to the right side of the screen. I'm using Remember The Milk for to-do list management and use the RTM for Gmail service to display my to-do tasks within the gmail interface. One of Gmail's biggest weaknesses is in the contact list. It doesn't give you any options for saving phone numbers and addresses or any other useful contact information.
Solution number two goes the mail client route. I chose Thunderbird just to prove I could work without Microsoft. I went through a whole lot of trouble trying to get my contacts exported from Notes and imported into Thunderbird but finally after manually tweaking a spreadsheet full of contact info I've got something workable. I'm using Thunderbird for email with the Lightning calendar extension.
I don't want to worry about multiple mail accounts so I'm still using Gmail as my mail server and Thunderbird is configured to use Gmail's IMAP server. The Lightning extension adds Sunbird compatible calendar support to Thunderbird. It displays events in an agenda format in the Thunderbird client. The calendar supports iCal and several other formats and I was able to find a couple of tweaks on the net that showed me how to set up synchronization for RTM and my Google Calendar entries.
Since there isn't a Thunderbird extension for instant messaging yet I'm using the Digsby IM client. This works pretty well since Digsby is compatible with MSN, AOL and Google Talk and supports webmail and social networking sites also.
In addition I'm running the Rainlendar desktop calendar on the desktop to give me instant access to calendar reminders. In order to integrate between Rainlendar and Google Calendar I downloaded GCALDaemon . The GCALDaemon can also be used to synch newsfeeds back to rainlendar, it's a pretty impressive bit of code.
For mobile support - since I couldn't cost justify a personal Blackberry or other smart phone with a data plan I added an LG-Scoop to the family Alltel plan and am paying an extra $5 / month for basic web services that gives me celltop access to my Gmail account. No new mail notification but I can live with that. I've configured Remember The Milk to email reminders for daily tasks so I can get to my task list remotely. If I wanted to eat the extra text messages each month I could configure it to send SMS alerts.
Of course none of this is a true replacement for the whole Notes/Domino experience but it does give me a familiar interface layout and interface to get work done. It takes a LOT of tweaking and configuring. Wouldn't it be so much nicer if I could just use a Notes client instead?
I could easily come up with a copy of the Notes 8 client probably even the 8.5 beta but I can't legally run it. Part of the problem we face in the market against Microsoft is the fact that the Outlook Express client is freely available on every PC or for download and the Outlook Client is included with most versions of the Office suite.
Wouldn't it be nice if we had a Notes Express client available for free for non-commercial use and integrated with Symphony. I'm very impressed with Symphony by the way. I had to come up with a replacement for Office to use at home. A Notes Express client could be look just like the Notes 8 client but only allow POP, IMAP, SMTP, iCAL,RSS protocols to provide access to existing data sources. The free version could even be ad supported by turning part of the sidebar space over to a dedicated ad widget. An express client would provide a way to give corporate Notes users a familiar interface for personal use at home. It could also introduce new users in High Schools and Universities to the values of the Notes interface. The Outlook express client is only available for Windows systems. A multipatform Notes Express client would appeal to Mac and Linux users as well.
4 comments:
Wow Chuck, that's some good detail on all the hoops you went through. I really like the Notes Express idea, and considering Symphony is already out there for free, it's almost a no-brainer that you need to add an email component to the package.
Heck, as Carl Tyler will remind you at every opportunity, they should repackage Lotus Approach with Symphony too to match MS Access.
Never say never.
My next trick will be syncing my Thunderbird contacts and Google calendar data with my iPod.
.... and that wasn't as big a trick as I thought. The Mozpod extension will automatically sync contacts from Thunderbird and calendar data from Lightning to your iPod... done.
That's an excellent idea!With traveler now supporting windows mobile and symbian OS, a notes express release would definitely add scoring points to Lotus notes business value.
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