#LOTUS NOTES SOFTWARE#
#LOTUS NOTES WINDOWS#

First, software built on Internet standard protocols was better able to interoperate across vendors, which appeals to buyers now wary of falling prey to “vendor lock.” Second, by using existing standards and freely available software foundations, competing vendors could create and release messaging systems with a faster development cycle than Notes. The Internet, in particular, was a growing threat to Notes for several reasons. In 1995, IBM purchased Lotus, and with that came new ideas for Notes.

#LOTUS NOTES WINDOWS#

Improving both also meant support for cross-platform installations, from DOS to OS/2 and, ultimately, Windows 3.0. Through 1996, the first four versions of Lotus Notes were aimed at improving the product’s scalability - its primary customers were large enterprises - and usability, particularly as desktop graphics operating systems themselves evolved. The clients included with Notes, like e-mail, were simply seen as “pre-built” components that were included with the framework. The intention in planning Notes was that enterprise developers would use the platform to build the tools their organization needed. Development-oriented: The flexibility of the NSF database is a key component of Notes’ designers original vision for making Notes a development platform rather than merely a task-specific set of tools.Individual records themselves are called “notes,” and compared to a traditional and rigid relational database, notes fields can contain a more varied set of values. Flexible storage contains: All data, whether e-mail, discussion comments, annotations, calendar entries and so on, are stored in a document-oriented database known as NSF - the Notes Storage Facility.Replication is bidirectional, so rather than merely “push” or “pull” data between client and server, both ends deliver updates to one another. To improve both efficiency and data integrity, Notes stores copies of data records on both server and client, and distributes updates as incremental changes. Data replication: As an early entrant into enterprise messaging, Notes had to contend with very slow networks.

It even included encryption and message authentication as well as hyperlinks (called “DocLinks”) between messages.īeyond its particular feature set, though, the software architecture behind Notes involved three foundational models that continue to shape the product to this day. At this time, the need for a sophisticated (for the time) platform for exchanging messages and managing discussions had spread beyond the world of mainframes to personal computers.įrom its first release, Notes supported group messaging, discussion and contact management (called a “Phone Book” at the time).

Lotus Notes, with its original version 1 commercial release in 1989, was just such a product, allowing users to exchange messages from either Microsoft DOS or IBM OS/2 systems using a graphical interface. Before then, network messaging software did exist, but it typically relied on vendor-designed protocols for exchanging information. Not until the mid-1990s did the Internet achieve enough penetration for its underlying messaging protocols, like POP and IMAP, to become global standards. Although Lotus Notes is today seen as the epitome of a corporate product, its beginnings were actually in academia. PLATO was an early-generation computer system designed for educational use at the University of Illinois. If we start at the beginning, Notes’ earliest ancestor was an online message board called PLATO Notes, born at the very dawn of computer networking, a time more commonly known as 1973. But we are still here, and maybe we know a thing or two the young upstarts have yet to learn. And for those of us also from way back in the early 70s, let’s face it - we’re not the cool kids anymore.

To be fair, Notes’ roots reach all the way back to the early 1970s. Its aim: to replace corporate stodginess and become a hipper, full-fledged server-based application platform. To grow its base, Notes must move away from its legacy rep. Let’s not beat around the bush - mention “Lotus Notes” to people, and many will have a reaction ranging from “Is that still around?” to “Ugh.” Notes has, perhaps unfairly so, a reputation for corporate stodginess that is the technology equivalent of 1980s music videos.įor Lotus Domino and Lotus Notes, longevity is both a blessing and a curse.

Lotus notes