IBM Open Client

How does that moniker strike you?

Same here. As a whole bunch of B$.

Dan Lyons of Forbes.com beat me to it with his article here.

From the article:

What do you do when you're trying to put a fresh look on a 20-year-old e-mail system? Well, if you're IBM, you start calling it "Open Client"; you hype it as being Linux-related; and you throw in a bunch of smack-talk about helping poor, oppressed customers throw off the yoke of Microsoft.

[...]

So what, exactly, is it? Scroll down through the press release and you find out it's basically a combo of Lotus Notes (e-mail and collaboration), Lotus Sametime (instant messaging) and a couple of other pieces that can all run on Windows, Linux or the Mac.

The Linux part of the equation comes from Red Hat and Novell, which will team up with IBM.

[...]

Maybe you're wondering, as I was, whether the name "Open Client" means that the software IBM is shipping is open-source, meaning its underlying instructions are available for users to study, share and copy. Er, no. The Lotus stuff remains closed-source. But the Open Client runs on top of a program called Eclipse, which is open-source.

While it might be great to run the same client software on every desktop regardless of operating system, the one time this rule does not apply is when the client software is Lotus Notes.

Lotus Notes is far and away the most horrible software on the planet. Sure, people grumble about Microsoft products. But that's nothing compared to how people feel about Notes. People hate Notes. As in, they want to change jobs just so they can stop using it. ....

......The only virtue of Notes is that often, IBM will throw it in at no cost if you buy a bunch of its other stuff.

[...]

Is there anyone left in the world who really believes Linux is cheaper than Windows? (Red Hat on the server actually costs more.) Does anyone think the way to make life easier is to go from dealing with Microsoft to dealing with Microsoft, IBM, Red Hat and Novell?

[...]

Remember one thing: As much as you may hate Windows, the reason Windows became popular in the first place was because it saved the world from IBM's attempt to monopolize the desktop with OS/2 and Presentation Manager.

But maybe you really believe that IBM has changed, and that it really wants to save you money and make you free and empower you with loads of choice and help you simplify your life. In which case, this no-list-price, non-open "Open Client" installed by consultants and delivered by three vendors working at cross-purposes may be just the thing for you.

Whew!

Even I, with both a flensing knife, and a Ginsu knife for close-in work, could not have filleted that incredibly misleading and moronic IBM press release as did Daniel Lyons.

Now you know why Forbes remains the best business magazine out there.

Goes to show, no matter how much you perfume a pig, or put lipstick on it, it still is a P-I-G, pig!

© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com^®