@Jerry: Open-source Notes?!? I don't think you appreciate the business/licensing/contractual implications of that decision from IBM's standpoint.
@Bob, I'd hardly say xpages is a failure. There are some good apps out there that seem to function well, and IBM has never disclosed how much effort went into the development, so we can only make assumptions.
I do think it's likely that IBM is putting too much weight behind the xpages efforts. As a customer, I want a faster starting, stable client to easy my current pains, and long-term I want a strategy to convert my apps to a web platform with ease and grace. I responded to Jake's survey saying I do some xpages, but that 'some' is mostly tinkering. I have maybe two applications in production that have xpages functionality.
I'm not particularly interested, as a customer, in re-writing functional and popular apps in xpages, because I have complete control of my environment. Rolling out the client is trivial, since it's on our images, and a few hours of training comes with orientation. As a VAR or BP, I see the benefits, but in a corporation, the benefits diminish significantly. VARs and BPs need something self-contained that they can sell as SAS if needed. The blogs are mostly filled with BPs/VARs, so the web message isn't really a true representation of what IBM customers are looking for, IMHO.
At some point we will probably make the switch to web apps, but it's not yet on the immediate radar. When that time comes, I will look for a mature tool to migrate my countless current apps (one that isn't cost-prohibitive). If that tool doesn't exist, we will see what state xpages is in, and see if that is the web platform of choice moving forward, but we will do our homework and make sure Notes is still the correct platform for my company.
@Jerry: Open-source Notes?!? I don't think you appreciate the business/licensing/contractual implications of that decision from IBM's standpoint.
@Bob, I'd hardly say xpages is a failure. There are some good apps out there that seem to function well, and IBM has never disclosed how much effort went into the development, so we can only make assumptions.
I do think it's likely that IBM is putting too much weight behind the xpages efforts. As a customer, I want a faster starting, stable client to easy my current pains, and long-term I want a strategy to convert my apps to a web platform with ease and grace. I responded to Jake's survey saying I do some xpages, but that 'some' is mostly tinkering. I have maybe two applications in production that have xpages functionality.
I'm not particularly interested, as a customer, in re-writing functional and popular apps in xpages, because I have complete control of my environment. Rolling out the client is trivial, since it's on our images, and a few hours of training comes with orientation. As a VAR or BP, I see the benefits, but in a corporation, the benefits diminish significantly. VARs and BPs need something self-contained that they can sell as SAS if needed. The blogs are mostly filled with BPs/VARs, so the web message isn't really a true representation of what IBM customers are looking for, IMHO.
At some point we will probably make the switch to web apps, but it's not yet on the immediate radar. When that time comes, I will look for a mature tool to migrate my countless current apps (one that isn't cost-prohibitive). If that tool doesn't exist, we will see what state xpages is in, and see if that is the web platform of choice moving forward, but we will do our homework and make sure Notes is still the correct platform for my company.