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Networking's 50 greatest arguments. A look at the all-time greatest controversies in the history of the network industry
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Lotus Notes vs. Microsoft Exchange

Messaging systems went toe-to-toe in years leading to today’s real-time communications bundle battle.
By John Fontana , Network World , 10/26/2007
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This one can back up to Lotus cc:Mail vs. Microsoft Mail, two early e-mail systems finding their way in a new world called LAN-based communications. While cc:Mail had a devout and passionate following, which formed an angry mob at their annual user conference when the death of the product was announced, the real arguments didn’t start until Notes and Exchange emerged from the ashes.

Eric Arnum, who was the Ernie Pyle of the early Notes/Exchange wars with his now-defunct Electronic Mail and Messaging and Messaging Online newsletters, tabulated seat counts from the trenches for a captivated audience. Installed base numbers and arguments over who had the best implementations of the latest Internet protocols have now disappeared into real-time communications bundles where Notes and Exchange are but a piece of a larger whole in their respective platforms.

Still today, Notes users remain the most passionate, clubbing IBM back into line each time Notes wavers from the center. Exchange, once anointed the leader of Microsoft’s unified communications caravan, now is just one part of it. But this is an argument with two winners. Both platforms deliver rich revenue streams for their respective companies that would make small countries blush.

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RE: Lotus Notes vs. Microsoft ExchangeBy ian White on October 29, 2007, 1:38 pmIts apples v oranges, marketing v technology, good v evil, proprietary v standards. At the end of the day if you are happy with Notes good, if your are happy with...

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Certainly you wouldn't lumpBy Kev on October 30, 2007, 8:50 amCertainly you wouldn't lump Exchange into the "standards" column would you? LOL Honestly they both have proprietary features and they both support certain standards. Oh...

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Good pointsBy Ian White on October 31, 2007, 6:17 amIts still a 'Notes Server' to me (just shows how old I am) in general the point you make is a good one, it goes to the general obfuscation that has led to the pointless...

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Do a real comparisonBy Ed Ferron on November 1, 2007, 8:17 amGet a bunch of users that do not have an IT bias, or a hatred for one vendor versus another and you will find they do not care about Notes versus Exchange. They...

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agreed, average joe doesn't care, but some preferences are thereBy Anonymous on November 8, 2007, 6:24 pmyes, good comments ("do a real comparison") but i have noticed a slight preference for outlook/exchange in the user side. i would say it's like 6 to 4 or something....

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Microsoft Exchange / Outlook / Sharepoint / MS- OfficeBy ArchAngel on November 8, 2007, 9:57 pmThese apps are more intuitive to use than Notes / Domino. I was a user of all of the apps mentioned in the article and I personally never liked cc:Mail and I never...

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