From Lotusphere 2008…

This was the single session I was most excited to attend at Lotusphere this year. The session was well attended by an always passionate group of Mac users. However, this year it seemed to also include people that need to start supporting the increase in Mac interest they are seeing in their company.

The big focus here was on the Mac 8.5 beta that is now available. Other major items from the session included:

• Symphony is in a pre-beta build but will be available ~2H of 2008
• The delay in 8.0.1 for the Mac was due largely to the delay of Leopard. The team chose to focus on 8.5 instead (which explains why you can get your hands on that beta version but not the upcoming release of 8.0.1 that will go to Windows in Feb.)
• Domino Web Access (DWA) works well with Firefox and the team is committed to better support in Safari 3.0.
• Sametime 8.0 supports video. In the second half of 2008, it will also support web conferencing.
• Quickr (web) works today. Support for plug-ins is to be determined (but the group applauded loudly on the suggestion that Quickr plug-ins should be a high priority).

The session wrapped with a nice demo of the Notes 8.5 client in the Mac. In short, it looks and acts just like it’s Windows counterpart. The team is also focused on making it more Mac-esque through things like Command function support and default mail app selection ability (making Notes your default mail program).

Finally, there was one question (and some applause to it) about if Lotus will port the Domino server to run natively on the Mac Leopard XServe server. The answer was “no” with the added comment that Lotus isn’t sure how much demand there is for that. — An arguement I’ve heard over and over again.

As someone who manages an IT department with data centers world-wide, I can honestly say that the ability to run Domino on the Leopard server would be HUGE. It would reduce licensing costs (Windows CALs), improve management ability (you can manage the Apple OS via their tools, which are easy and powerful, especially for remote site management), and I would assume that there would be a performance and stability improvement considering how solid the Mac server O/S remains.

Clearly there’s a need to define the value proposition and strategy behind why Lotus should focus on this concept. Call me, I’ll help.

All in all, I felt this was a great session that hit dead-on with the needs of Mac users in the business. There is still much desire in the community for even more (we want it now, we also want the Designer and Admin clients, we want better support for the iPhone, etc.). But it was the first time I can ever remember that IBM/Lotus really made a statement even close to: “we are committed to supporting the Mac - and not as a secondary O/S that we wish we didn’t have to pay attention to.”

That attitude has clearly started to change and the proof is available now as a download!