Re: The Future of the System i - the Domino theory

I realize I lead a sheltered life, but is Domino for workflow in
particular and Domino for email in general all that popular? I don't
know of anyone running it around here, but that's probably my limited
world view. Are there any stats regarding installed base?

Domino for email has a pretty horrible reputation among email client 
_users_ (the average Slashdot posting will use words like "abortion" and 
"travesty"). 

The reputation is better, I believe, among administrators.

For workflow, it's reputation is very good, particularly organizations 
that are seeking/demanding rapid prototyping of new processes. 

It will be interesting to see how the move to an underlying relational 
database model pans out.  Tying directly into Lotus Notes data will drive 
a programmer crazy--there's only so much substringing of data you can 
handle before you quit in disgust.  On the other hand, a lot of developers 
of workflow solutions are addicted to an interface that doesn't require 
any knowledge of data normalization.  If they (IBM) can manage to please 
both groups they will have a killer product.

On the other hand, they have a lot of work to do on the interface before 
they build support among users [I don't agree with the complaints, but you 
can't get on public forums and ignore the sentiment].