Network World: Networking’s 50 greatest arguments: Lotus Notes vs. Microsoft Exchange

October 29 2007

John Fontana takes us down memory lane...

This one can back up to Lotus cc:Mail vs. Microsoft Mail, two early e-mail systems finding their way in a new world called LAN-based communications. While cc:Mail had a devout and passionate following, which formed an angry mob at their annual user conference when the death of the product was announced, the real arguments didn't start until Notes and Exchange emerged from the ashes.
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Ed Brill | Highland Park, IL USA Category:  Messaging  Add/View Comments [11]

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  1. 1  Carl Tyler http://www.iminstant.com | 10/29/2007 12:47:28 PM

    No Wordperfect vs Word? 1-2-3 versus Excel?

    For a fun one, look at the Windows vs OS2 argument poll :-)

  1. 2  Chris Whisonant http://cwhisonant.blogspot.com | 10/29/2007 3:17:17 PM

    Good grief - It's a piece of desktop client software vs. Email server software?!?

    If that's the case, then the Notes UI wins hands-down over the Exchange UI!!!

    Ed, do you have any user data on comparisons of an MMC snap-in versus Notes? :)

  1. 3  Charles Robinson http://cubert-codepoet.blogspot.com | 10/29/2007 4:13:11 PM

    @2- In fairness, Notes was both the client and the server until 4.5 (1996). Even then it was "Domino 4.5, Powered by Notes".

  1. 4  Peter Wilson  | 10/29/2007 5:23:21 PM

    I still miss some of cc:mails features (an accurate email download status)...

    Pete

  1. 5  Chris Whisonant http://cwhisonant.blogspot.com | 10/29/2007 9:07:38 PM

    @3 - OK, so the 10 year old argument is what we're supposed to be voting on? :)

  1. 6  Dave Madison  | 10/30/2007 12:32:35 AM

    Fontana must be running out of things to write about.

  1. 7  Kevin Mort  | 10/30/2007 7:45:43 AM

    @2 - Exactly Chris. Just like one of our IT guys talking about a migration from "Notes to Exchange."

    @3 - Sure it used to be that way but it isn't now, sadly many who are MS fans don't know the difference.

  1. 8  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 10/30/2007 8:04:11 AM

    @6 it looks like it is a series of 50 articles, man, you can find fault in anything.

  1. 9  Duffbert http://www.twduff.com | 10/30/2007 8:17:23 AM

    @6: I thought the same thing at first. I got a Google News Alert to the page with the Exchange vs. Notes argument. I was all ready for an in-depth article. But I got to the end of the page and thought "*that's* an article???" It was only after I saw the link to "return to top 50 arguments" that I realized it was only a small subset of a larger feature...

    But I just had to love the results of the polling to date... :)

  1. 10  Charles Robinson http://cubert-codepoet.blogspot.com | 10/30/2007 8:18:47 AM

    @5 - That's what it started as, and that's what it will always be in many people's minds. IBM (or in this case Lotus) is often its own worst enemy. They try to make something look fresh by renaming it and just end up confusing people. At least they sometimes regain sanity, as in Sametime > IBM Lotus Internet Messaging and Web Conferencing > Sametime. The AS/400 will always be the AS/400 to me, I don't care what IBM renames it. :-)

    @7 - It's not just MS fans who don't know the difference. Now that I'm in a MS shop I get asked a lot about our Outlook server.

  1. 11  Darren http://www.dadams.co.uk | 10/30/2007 12:58:25 PM

    @10 - and I've been told "all our users like Exchange". I'm sure 90% have no idea what the back-end component is, nor do they care.

    Having said that, with the message "this will reduce the amount of e-mail downtime" they'd probably like Domino better than Exchange ;o)