Is IBM Toast? (PC Magazine) [LWN.net]

Is IBM Toast? (PC Magazine)

Posted Jul 20, 2002 15:52 UTC (Sat) by rmdirms (guest, #2659) [Link]

I for one DO. I was torn between feeling "hypocritical" for originating my business plan (at www.jabybi.com) in Lotus SmartSuite (since I had to use ms widows98) and using StarOffice 5.2. I had to write IBM on/around April 29, 2002, and implore their using Borland Kylix and some licensing arrangement to get this thing underway.

I at first wishfully thought IBM was being nice to OpenSource or fulfilling some contract with SUN (WHY do I keep thinking IBM sold StarDivision to not rankle the Lotus ranks? ANd in doing so, agreed not to mess with SUN?) and letting StarOffice have the Linux space. Well, I've got my problems with StarOffice AND OpenOffice. The problems I have should never have existed. Anyway, my commentary is below:

Lotus and IBM need to knock off whatever internal politicking there may be going on and contract Borland to decompile and recompile SmartSuite to work in Linux. The LSB or whatever RedHat /files locations contention there is need to knock it off and make it easy for ms windows apps developers to viably port or rebuild their apps for Linux/API concerns. I realize I am being simplistic, but WINE and Win4Lin are not fully able to do what a native, complete app is able to. Lotus SmartSuite, if updated, would BLOW AWAY StarOffice and OpenOffice, and I'd buy SmartSuite. I bought SO 5.2, and got SO 6.0 with Mandrake 8.2 and I downloaded Openoffice.org 1.0. They are "ok" to "cool" but I MISS MISS MISS the features in WordPro and I miss Approach. GET WITH IT, IBM! You wanna take mircostor to task yet you do NOTHING to give the hesitant ITO a chance to move their Lotus apps into Linux space. If you invested $1 BILLION into Linux, and got it all back in under a YEAR, then SHOW some more gratitude and spend 3 months and some Kylix time empowering companies that dare not abandon ms for fear of not taking some projects over in the move.

=======Here is my letter I wrote to an IBM and Tim Sipples (of Bityard)=============

Time for IBM to kick Lotus to kick SmartSuite into HIGH GEAR, and SOON...Fwd: I read your interesting article "New Open Source Office Suite from IBM" at...
From: rmdirms <rmdirms@attbi.com>
To: askibm@vnet.ibm.com
Cc: rmdirms@attbi.com
Date: Mon, 29 Apr 2002 20:19:52 -0700

Hello IBM,
The upper half of this message is my commentary TO IBM/Lotus. The lower half
(denoted by ()()()()()() ) is my commentary ABOUT IBM/Lotus to someone else.
There are probably some glaring misstatements in there, but by no means are
they malicious (except toward microfots...).
-----------

IBM routing recipient:

Please route this to whomever is NOT a low-level functionary. I want a bite
or a handshake from someone HIGH up in the echelons. Not to go and run off
with "news from a big wig", but hoping that that big wig can step out and
announce to the world an Earth-shattering piece of news.

A number of grumbling people like me are agitated and anxious, chomping at
the bit. The market downturn and the potential for a great upswing is the
best time now for IBM to exploite the cash-strapped status of companies
needing to upgrade to a compelling, formidable, superior, stunning, and
dazzling yellow and blue SmartSuite. Beats that drab gray and depressing blue
of ms office and Sun StarOffice.

My name is David Syes. Once or twice a year I write in to pester, cajole,
motivate, or nettle you into doing something about the stagnation of Lotus
and Lotus SmartSuite. I don't care for or about any internal politics that
may or may not exist. My goal is to see SmartSuite proliferating and
flourishing in a new environment, Linux, and doing so NATIVELY, and not built
around emulation layers.

I need to hear some positive (not fancy side-steppin' stuff) response from
IBM regarding getting Lotus to get it into gear and either OpenSource
SmartSuite, or divest itself of SmartSuite for the betterment of Linux.

I have patiently waited for YEARS for IBM and Lotus to provide the beautiful
SmartSuite and ESPECIALLY, ESPECIALLY WordPro and Approach. To date, in my
pessimistic view, IBM and Lotus are squandering the power, features, and
message of SmartSuite and what it could be in the Linux world.

I don't think Lotus will sell $500,000,000 in SmartSuite, but if IBM and
Lotus open it of, or run it through Kylix and deploy it, it'll be better than
just letting SmartSuite rot away in windoze land.

I have been forced, reluctantly, nauseatingly, out of SmartSuite, my favorite
package. For too many years, Approach has yet to see any *significant*,
*earth-shattering* feature improvement, just "stabilization" and code
cleanup. What are these Approach people being allowed to do? Vegetate and
lose voice within IBM and Lotus?

Please turn them loose with a vengeance and let these people up the ante for
the StarOffice (an constantly improving or adopted non-ms and non-windowz
suite) as well as give the world more *oompf* to open up to Lotus.

IBM needs to open a side valve to supply the wait-and-see bunch. Soon, the
naysayers will be on Linux and IBM and Lotus in a position to offer
compelling services and add-ons.

Below is a letter I sent to a guy reviewing or passing on info about products
and services. Take from my letter what you will. At worst, I am a disgruntled
SmartSuited emigre, but at best, if you bring Lotus to Linux, I'll drop
StarOffice in a HEARTBEAT. IF you port all of SmartSuite as it runs in
windows, AND, AND add a slew of sorely needed advances (I am sure your people
are already scouring StarOffice and OpenOffice for gems and nuggets), you'd
have the BEST DAMN OFFICE SUITE ON THE PLANET.

C'mon, whaddy 'ya waitin' for?

Best Regards (despite my tone),

David Syes/SmartSuite user since ~~1993
Linux user since 6-1999

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(
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---------- Forwarded Message ----------

Subject: I read your interesting article "New Open Source Office Suite from
IBM" at...
Date: Mon, 29 Apr 2002 15:44:02 -0700
From: rmdirms <rmdirms@attbi.com>
To: tim.sipples@bityard.com
Cc: rmdirms@attbi.com

http://www.bityard.com/article.php?sid=179

Hi Timothy,

I am replying to your article because I heard Saturday at a Linux installfest
that IBM was likely to soon port or announce porting of Lotus SmartSuite to
Linux. I did a Google (ok, Goolge is a noun, right?) and found your article
among others. Surprisingly, while Google turned up an old live link to:

http://lists.samba.org/pipermail/gnuotes/1998-October/000397.html

which led to an InforWorld link at:

http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?981031.ehlotus.htm

InfoWorld's OWN SEARCH ENGINE returned 0 articles for...

the topic.

Onward...

I think that SmartSuite MUST be released under GPL/GNU where IBM can. For too
long, Lotus has, in my opinion, allowed Approach and various minor but
stunning and stellar portions of SmartSuite to stagnate. We need killer XML
document generation, better web awareness that either enhances or obviates
"FastSite". Lotus needs to ditch the JDoc thingy that Approach is using to
print Approach forms. The annoying and enormous number of spawned
Java-related files is truly proprietary, obfuscatory, and must be removed and
replaced with something that JUST produces text, graphics, links to the
graphics, and some highly compressed but human-readable meta data that can be
tweaked in an outside text editor so the resulting HTML/(future) XML page is
appealing. As it stands, I cannot use Jdoc becaue the pages are out of
alignment. Worse, for Approach, it could not and still cannot (as of the
Millenium version I bought) serve up on a LAN any pages in a manner that
behaves like client-based software. Web and Java apps a cool and all, but I
want my web-presented apps to look and behave as traditional apps to the
user. Minus any jumbo-ized, kindergarten forms and dialog boxes.

Approach is THE, I dare say THEEEEE, best darned database-agnostic front end
to a set of tables a non-DBA could buy. I'd GLADLY pay up to $200 for a
Linuxized version of Approach, but with some more power-user security, file
and row and CELL locking, and more. I cynically think Lotus is trembling that
they may somehow cannibalize their Notes and Domino offerings, but given the
current small (but growing) size of Linux users, it can only be a good thing.
I am a "database dilitante" but I ABHOR slugging through 5 or 6 books I have
on SQL writing, PHP, PostgreSQL and MySQL. These are ALL great, beautiful
products built from much blood and sweat. They MUST be looked at and used by
power users and their companies. But, I maintain small databases that don't
need me to be a DBA. I cannot find a simple-to-install, bug-free,
implementation that looks and acts like a non-Java/non-applet tool that works
with DBF tables (so I don't have to export them into CSV or xls or sdc, or
sxc etc.) . I don't want to deal with dependencies. Aptget or RPM should
pre-search its payload or manifest and spare me of that. Otherwise,
simplicity-seeking USERS will be deterred from adopting Linux.

I just a few days ago was composing a letter to Linus T, Larry E, and Eric R
or Richard S and when describing something I was working on, felt ridiculous
advocating and preaching Linux, yet I am running win98 in Win4Lin in my
Mandrake box simply because I am addicted to Lotus Approach. (Except for
Half-Life and Soldier of Fortune, I've been using Linux since June 1999 and
almost heavily/regularly day-to-day since almost all that time, too.) So,
late March/Early April I regretfully went cold-turkey from SmartSuite to
SO52, then to OO .641d. It was a bit tense for a few days, but now, I'm ok. I
think many corporations too stubborn to switch could also go cold turkey. The
training time and costs are in the short term economically questionable, but
in the longer term, you are a few apps less rectally-probiscally attached to
microsoft.

Word Pro has a BEAUTIFUL "Sections" made of atop-page tabs just like in
spreadsheets. But, SO or Open Office has a nifty feature of letting you
insert PORTIONS and even CELLS of another document into yet other sections of
a Sectioned document. Confused me, too, but I see it as a beautiful option to
have, especially since you can password-protect sections and I think, cells
or fields of a section. Approach has these tabs, too. Yet, StarOffice 5.2 or
OO 637 have a kludgy, maddening habit placing inserted sections ABOVE the
cursor point, forcing the user to reorder. OpenOffice 641d has a maddening
tendency to sometimes not place separator spaces between sections, resulting
in a new section being inserted or seeming to be inserted into an existing
section. So, offendingly, OO641d doesn't consistently keep the spaces between
the sections.

I wish Sun would rob some pages from Word Pro and Approach so that Writer
would behave better. What is SOOOO beautiful that I miss in WordPro and
Approach is this smartpallet thing that floats (when invoked) and is
NON-MODAL. I cannot for my life figure out why ANYbody would want a modal
properties box that force you in and out of WYSIWYG mode or won't let you see
immediately the changes you make. SmartSuite is STELLAR and the properties
box wizardry and it ABSOLUTELY DRIVES ME NUTS that Lotus since 1998 has YET
to deliver a Linux-based offering. Too many businesses are REactive vs
PROactive. Now, I don't want to see Star/Open Office harmed. I think if OO
and SS were somehow merged, you'd have the KILLER OFFICE SUITE of the
century.

The Berkeley DB database in OO and the Adabase database in SO need to
DISPENSE, with ALL due HASTE, this penchant for mimicking ms Access. I admit
the sheer numbers of users of Access overshadow those of Lotus Approach, but
Approach's tables linking feature is virtually a NOBRAINER. I've been using
Approach since about 1993 or so and NO other similarly priced/available
database pleases me, yet annoys me. I could have gone with FileMaker pro, for
it seems to be a "cousin" of sorts of Approach, but the cost kept me away. I
don't want a database that compels me to keep buying add ons or become a
full-fledge DBA and takes up more time than it should. I tried to use
Borland's Kylix 2.0, but it TOO, maddeningly, is devoid of (or seems to be)
the SIMPLE, DBF-reading TOOLS and table linking and web-sharing I want. I
bought the $300 version, but I threw the CDs back into the box and chalked it
up to $300 more down the drain because I don't intend to pay $1,999 to get
that ONE feature I need but cannot figure out or find in Kylix.

Yes, I have tried theKompany's Rekall, and the President of that company did
personally reply to me. I was touched that he took the time to reply
personally. But, I keep upgrading my Mandrake Distro ever 3 or 4 months and
invariably break my ability to use a few things here and there (not
show-stoppers, tho). I REALLY want theKompany to take Approach off Lotus'
hands, if IBM and Lotus would go for it. SOMEBODY needs to "de-brain-gel"
some of these database tools so mom&pop shops and dilitantes can wrap their
brains around some simpler, yet hopefully future-extensible tools.

The SUITE and the ability do nullify the bells & whistles lock-in that ms
relies upon will BREAK ms' grip on the office suite. Data should NEVER be so
intertwined into the app that the USER cannot switch at will.

Games and CodeWeaver are another area of contention. Games on the PC are what
helped MAKE ms. Games on Linux, I mean GOOD, 3-D, 1st Person types, will MAKE
LINUX (unless the PC platform itself is rendered inert by some server-based
stuff, but I will NEVER share my personal docs on a SAN/NAS, etc. Never. I'll
take my chances on firewalls, proxies, IDS and such...).

Also, as for video conferencing, the GnomeMeeting needs to be merged into
SmartSuite and Star/Open Office so that users can collaborate independently
of the version or distro of Linux, yet be available regardless of SO/OO/SS.
Whiteboarding MUST be QUICKLY added, the LDAP servers propagated world-wide,
and the H323 code wrested back out of microsfot's strangling hands.
Good-enough should be good enough, so GnomeMeeting needn't be Sony- or
studio-grade video, but good enough for coffee shops, schools, and non-power
meeting conferences. For ms to have broken the ILS server that was in
Nov/Dec 2001 allowing Linux users of GnomeMeeting is a HEINOUS, specious,
retaliatory thing meant to choke off GnomeMeeting from accessing NetMeeting
users and should ALONE be another anti-trust case opener. DOJ, are you
LISTENING/READING THIS? RE-READ IT!

I wish Sun and IBM/Lotus would get together on this one and some others
efforts and make a project manager interface for Approach,
StarOffice/OpenOffice and make it similar to the Pre-StarOffice 5.2
monolithic interface's outlook-looking panel. I welcome SO6.2, but I sorely
miss 5.2's project management. Now, I have to return to
hop-scotching/switching between apps. I'd really like a feature in Approach
and Word Pro, SO & OO that would let me manually make up "drawers" like the
Lotus Notes of old had. That drawer metaphore was something I loved. I miss
it. I want it back!

We need vendor interoperability and less isolation. Linux gives me CHOICE,
POWER, and FREEDOM! NO company (ms) or any bought-off politicians (usually
non-tech-savvy) have ANY right to tell me that Linux is "illegal", mainly
because I strongly believe that all the attacks AGAINST ms windows are
launched FROM ms windows boxes. So, if any congressmen/women fall for ms' red
herrings, they need to rethink. Even IFFF nutty/devious Linux users (the very
few of them) harmed ms windows-based networks, more people are currently
suffering virii attacks or defense costs because they refuse to consider
switching to a less-attacked (operative phrase being "for now") OS. Too many
IT staffs refuse to "diversify". Standardization was the watchword, but that
has led to too much dependency upon ms to get its security act together and
dispense with treating security as a PR issue. At least with Linux, the code
is (where not security-sensitive) TOTALLY inspectable. No SPAGHETTI and
obfuscation there to muck up and mire businesses trying to control their
development costs.

Anyway, I digressed...

I want my Met-A-Phors ...

Good Article, though, and I must (and do) apologize for the length of my
article...

(C) 2002-29-04 David Syes (less any proprietary links included to assist
readers in reading supplementary information. Link owners: don't whine, for
anyone following these links only icreases your site hits and is really of a
BENEFIT to you.)

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