User perception is reality.  If the user clicks on the icon and nothing happens or something bad happens, it is whatever is written on the icon that is the cause.  Often the reason "Notes Sucks", or any product for that matter, is not really a fair statement.  But who cares about fairness, really.

Was out at one customer site last week where "Domino Sucked".  I was asked to do a Notes 8.5 demo as they were thinking of switching to Exchange.  Prior to the users showing up there was a bit of an IT session. NSD errors, mailbox corruption, funny behavior that cannot be explained.  When you dive into it, the issue is that they are running on a version of Linux that has not been touched in 6 years, with a version of Notes that is about the same vintage.  When this software was released it was not smart enough to anticipate IE 7, or 8, or VISTA, backup agents, or a lot of other things.  Notes is not the problem. The problem is the care and feeding.  Combine that with the fact nobody in the IT dept has a Lotus certification or has attended any formal training.  When I asked if they have called anyone to fix things, they told me they have called IBM Support and were told to upgrade.  Can't fault them on that one.

Did a web meeting with a customer overseas earlier this week.  This time "Docova sucked".   Web meetings are great. Gives you a visual that simply does not come across in an email.  About 40 windows open on this usr's desktop.  The task manager showed almost 2GB of memory being used.  User admitted they have not rebooted their laptop for a couple of weeks.   You could hardly navigate from one window to another anymore.  Even with a reboot and everything cleaned up connecting to the Notes server is painful.  Felt like the old days of modem connections.

It is interesting how in many cases the user experience is used as cannon fodder to feed some agenda.  I have one client that I suggested a support plan for, rather than having to do statements of work and PO numbers for very simple updates.   The delays were getting the users upset.  He told me that he "knew the end users were upset, but had no intention of doing anything about it."  He was a brand XYZ fan, and having the Notes apps failing and long delays for upgdates helped to support his recommendations that they should not be running it.

There is my rant for the day.  On the up side, we have a couple of good sized deals closing.  The markets are up a bit.  Have not heard the word "Depression" from the media for some time now.  May have to head to Scotland in the next couple of months.  Never been there before.