Paul Withers made an interesting comment to me today on Twitter (see below). Below that, see a portion of a slide from one of these sessions, ID106. Finally, see my video, First Test of Midas in Notes browser plugin recorded, released the first day the browser plugin was available publicly. The interesting thing that these three together point out is that IBM acted as if it could simply kill the king and eliminate the monarchy, but instead just had to replace it with another king.
Among the great strengths (and terrible curses) of Lotus Notes (aka IBM Lotus Notes/Domino, aka IBM Notes/Domino) has always been its versatile rich text. Not simply in documents, but forms, views and everywhere else, rich text is the underpinning of Notes and Domino. In Tolkienian terms, it is the king under the mountain. (Note: only I would ever describe rich text as "royal" without adding "pain in the ass" after that. I know, I know, it is hardly king of the heap for anyone but me, but it still supports tens of thousands of applications at many large companies, and supporting it pays my kid to get through college. Enough said.)
So, while IBM is happily proclaiming the end of Notes, all they have really done is put out Notes 7 (without Eclipse) and bundled it into a browser window. Same functionality. Runs LotusScript the same way. Support Notes and Notes mail the same way. Even supports addins such as the Midas LSX... because it is the same thing under the covers. The king is dead - long live the king.
Someday, Notes will go away entirely. It may be another decade, but when IBM has sessions about the "browser plugin", they are still supporting the monarchy that they despise so righteously. And on the bright side, we get away from Eclipse when we run Notes the browser plugin, which has been a dreadfully heavy load to bear.
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