IBM announces public beta for Lotus Notes and Domino 8

The open beta program gives users a peek at a redesigned interface that includes new time saving features such the ability to quickly view important emails by grouping them into conversation threads, no-cost productivity editors that create open standards-based, versions of spreadsheets, word processing and presentations, and search capabilities that let users extend searches beyond email and contacts to Web and file searches without leaving the inbox.

Beta code is currently available and can be downloaded at: www.ibm.com/lotus/getnd8now.

In the days immediately following availability, there have been more than 12,000 downloads of the beta client and server products for a variety of platforms, including Linux and Windows for clients and Windows, Linux, Sun Solaris, AIX and IBM System i for servers.

'Organizations are tired of the one-size-fits-all world of proprietary software and are demanding more than search and simple email capabilities to be productive at work,' said Ken Bisconti, vice president of Lotus messaging and collaboration. 'Lotus Notes and Domino 8 delivers a high-performance work environment that natively links to other Lotus software components such as social software, collaborative content management, and unified communications and collaboration. This version allows developers to build a new class of Web 2.0 solutions and taps into the latest technologies from IBM Research.'

'The advances in Lotus Notes and Domino 8 guarantees IBM's commitment in providing enhanced and richer solutions to their customers,' said Bashar Kilani, software group manager, IBM Middle East, Egypt and Pakistan. 'Businesses are provided with a fully integrated collaborative environment that allows them to work closely with one another and achieve growth faster.'

The beta program previews Lotus Notes and Domino 8 software with new and enhanced features including:


• Choice in office productivity tools: Lotus Notes 8 will include the IBM Lotus Productivity Editors at no additional cost. Supporting the OpenDocument Format, these editors provide users with the ability to create and edit Microsoft Office compatible spreadsheets, presentations, and documents.


• Simplified management of email overload: In addition to the traditional view of the inbox, Lotus Notes 8 gives users the ability to view their inbox by conversations, grouping related messages together. Users will also benefit from embedded instant messaging and presence awareness, advanced search capabilities, and icons that show whether the user was on the 'to' or 'cc' field of an email message.


• Simplified creation of rich Web 2.0 applications: Built on an open framework, Lotus Notes 8 brings the power of 'business mashups' to the desktop through composite applications, which combine multiple software components into a single user interface.


• Extended support for web services: Building on the web services capabilities of Lotus Domino 7, Lotus Notes 8 clients and Domino 8 servers can initiate web service requests to other systems. This enhanced support for system interaction via open standards lets organizations make use of their existing IT investments. For example, with full web services support an organization could automatically initiate a request for currency exchange rates from within a server-based Lotus Domino application. The rates could then be plugged directly into an expense reporting application or stored in a database for future reference.


• Flexibility and choice of operating system: Extending IBM's commitment to open standards and choice in computing, Lotus Notes and Domino 8 includes support for: Microsoft Windows XP or Linux (SLED 10) with feature parity across clients plus full feature Web access support for Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers on multiple platforms, plus server platform choice of Windows 2003, Windows 2003 x64, Linux, AIX, Sun Solaris, IBM i5/0S. Users can upgrade both the client and server from prior release with same hardware requirements and compatibility, coexisting with all prior release