October 07, 2010, 4:41 PM — Lotus Notes, which even during the '90s was clunky and nostalgic in a bad way got a cloud-computing makeover today.
LotusLive iNotes is the latest in a string of increasingly alarming facelifts foisted on the aging messaging platform by changing technology and IBM's compulsion to not ever give up on or try to convert customers from a product as long as anyone is willing to hang onto it.
The venerable old bird still makes the top-ten email clients lists (at No. 10), with a rousing 1.3%, just behind AppleMail 2, 3 and 4, respectively.
Notes was already available through cloud- and outsourcing providers, but a Web-based email-only version called LotusLive iNotes went online last October for $3.75 per month per user.
The new version, Lotus Live, includes all the calendaring, IM, web conferencing, file sharing and other features of full-bore Notes. The launch ensures continued suffering for employees of giant corporations that consider the ability to build a giant infrastructure more important than the possibility of using it.
