Dave Delay loves Lotus Notes

Dave Delay, an IBM developer who used towork on Notes, noticed that Notes bashing is in fashion again this month,and so he writes:In my opinion, people dislike Notesbecause their expectations don't jive with the original intent of the product.At its core, Notes is a runtime environment for collaborative applications,but when people complain about Notes, they are usually not talking aboutcore Notes at all. They are talking about the Notes Mail and Calendar applications.which,in some opinions, is the set of applications which need freshening up --and as such, are getting major attention in Notes"Hannover".  ButDave, like many of us, is tired of the bashing, and says:Here'swhat I am really saying to people who dislike Notes: Grow up please. Youmay have preferred the mail application you used in your last job. Youmay have a dozen small complaints about how Notes works. But don't sayNotes sucks and recommend throwing it out. That's like throwing out thebaby with the bath water. Chances are your IT department has many goodreasons for sticking with Notes. Have you asked what those reasons are?Somegood comments in discussion already, with ex-Notes-developer/now-MS BobCongdon chiming in as well. I like this comment from "Brian":I'venever seen a company be so steadfast in maintaining compatibility betweenreleases. This includes the user interface. I think the Notes designershave done a great job walking that fine line. I can't say the same forMSFT.This is exactly the answer I gave to a colleaguethe other day about the sent "folder" actually being a view inthe Notes mailbox.  It could (and may yet) be changed, but it wouldtake a lot of evaluation about backward compatibility, interoperability,and application integration. Link: DaveDelay's Runtime Log: I love Lotus Notes>