New Sametime 8 offerings announced today - updated

November 26 2007

A bit later this morning, IBM will issue a press release announcing the availability Lotus Sametime 8, scheduled for Thursday, November 29.

New features in Lotus Sametime Standard 8 include:
- Expanded platform support for Lotus Domino 8 and server support for VMWare environments.
- Extended mobile support including the Nokia E-series, Sony Ericsson, and Windows Mobile 6   devices
- New point to point video capabilities for Macintosh users.
-  Integration with Microsoft Office 2007
You can find out more about the Sametime 8 product family by visiting ibm.com: Sametime - Get the buzz >  I'll update this post later today with links to the press release and other IBM bloggers.

Update 26 Nov 3 PM CST: Might be tomorrow on that press release, and I think the eGA date has been pushed to early next week.  Stay tuned for more details.

Update 27 Nov 10 AM CST: Adam Gartenberg has posted a blog entry about the Sametime 8 release.

Ed Brill | Highland Park, IL USA Category: Add/View Comments [11]

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  1. 1  Pedro Quaresma  | 11/26/2007 10:10:59 AM

    Why specifically mention "Integration with Microsoft Office 2007" and not "Integration with Open Office 2.3" or "Integration with Lotus Symphony Beta 2" ? ;-)

    Jokes aside, I remember seeing a statistic somewhere that the amount of ODF documents on the web were vastly superior to the amount of Office 2007-only (docx, etc) documents, so there's possibly a greater audience to captivate on the ODF front?

  1. 2  Adam Gartenberg http://www.adamgartenberg.com | 11/26/2007 10:56:26 AM

    @1) We will have integration with Lotus Symphony (as announced here: { Link } ), but it's not available just yet. Support for Office 2007, on the other hand, will be available with the GA of Lotus Sametime 8 this week.

    I'm glad to know you're looking for it, though!

  1. 3  Henry Ferlauto http://www.geniusinside.com | 11/26/2007 8:51:09 PM

    Great to see the VMWare support.

    On a semi-related noted, I think it would be wise to re-emphasize the number of OS platforms supported, especially Linux and iSeries since a lot shops wanted this for a long time, and it was already delivered in 7.x.

    Also, the "detailed system requirements" page need to be updated to reflect Sametime 8.

    { Link }

    Lastly, I think the "Get the buzz" page originally referenced should have a link to the system requirements once they have been updated for Sametime 8.

  1. 4  mike  | 11/26/2007 9:47:44 PM

    Does it log chats ?

  1. 5  Alan Bell http://www.dominux.co.uk | 11/27/2007 7:49:43 AM

    Every time IBM support Microsoft before their own products it is driving people away. I used to run Domino on iSeries but releases were 3-6 months behind the Windows releases. This did not help Domino adoption on iSeries to put it mildly. Releasing support for Microsoft Office before support for Symphony/OOo/Notes 8 is a complete own goal. I would rather the whole release was delayed until the Symphony and OOo integration was done.

  1. 6  Stuart McIntyre http://collaborationmatters.com | 11/27/2007 8:17:11 AM

    @4 Of course...

    @5 Hear, hear, completely agree...

    As for Sametime 8 - great products, wonderful features, AWFUL names!

    I had really thought that IBM had learnt its lessons from the Lotus Instant Messaging and Web Conferencing days, and new names like Quickr, Connections and Symphony had continued to give me hope. But Sametime Entry and Sametime Standard?? Zzzzz.....

  1. 7  Kevin Mort  | 11/27/2007 8:47:00 AM

    I'll make an assumption here that ST 8 runs on the Domino 8 server?

    @5 - That is unfortunate Alan, as the releases for i5/OS have been out at the same time as for Windows for some time now.

  1. 8  Adam Gartenberg http://www.adamgartenberg.com | 11/27/2007 9:47:56 AM

    Thanks for the post, Ed.

    All - Please see here { Link } for more details on what's coming out in Lotus Sametime Standard 8.

    @3) We will be updating the website in the next few days, including updated system requirements.

    @4) As before, chat logging is available via a number of third party providers, as well as a sample database that is provided along with Sametime. (And for all for whom this would be important out of the box, go vote here: { Link } )

    @5) Just to confirm, we will be releasing Lotus Sametime 8 products on all supported platforms simultaneously upon eGA. Regarding the Microsoft Office support, we are enhancing the existing integration, which was introduced back in March, 5 months before Lotus Notes 8 shipped and 6 months before the first beta of Symphony. That said, I do completely understand your point about the need for supporting our own products, and we are actively working towards that.

    @7) Yes, Sametime 8 will run on a Domino 8 server

  1. 9  Alan Bell http://www.dominux.co.uk | 11/27/2007 11:23:31 AM

    @7 this QSECOFR no longer does WRKDOMSVR but not because of anything that IBM did. I understand the release schedules are in sync now, it was a major pain at the time to be working on what IBM treated as a second class platform. ("yes dear user, I know about that bug, it is fixed on the Windows platform but IBM won't release IBM Lotus Notes for the IBM iSeries yet, they do Microsoft Windows first")

    I was never that impressed by the iSeries to be honest, but I can see worrying parallels with Office integration. Quickr should support OpenOffice.org and variants. That should be a very very high priority within IBM. There should be nothing coming out of any bit of IBM that supports Microsoft Office better than it supports OpenOffice.org/Symphony.

  1. 10  mike  | 11/27/2007 5:22:47 PM

    @8 - Sample database that IBM doesn't provide production support for. So my answer is .. no :) .. which is a shame.

  1. 11  Dimitris  | 11/28/2007 2:04:45 PM

    Will it support xSP (Hosted Organizations) configuration?