IBM Kills Lotus Brand With New Notes/Domino Release

Another iconic brand in the IT world is about to disappear. IBM is phasing out Lotus, a brand that was created with the founding of Lotus Software in 1982, and was continued for more than 17 years by IBM after the acquisition of the software maker in 1995.

In a blog post, IBM's Ed Brill announced that IBM will be releasing the "IBM Notes/Domino 9 Social Edition" as a public beta on December 14. It is the first Notes/Domino release that will be made available under the IBM and not Lotus brand.

Brill noted that version 9 will be adding several new features, including "embedded experiences, a modernized user interface, new mail and calendar features, the Notes browser plug-in, SAML support, Traveler support on the IBM i operating system, [and] new XPages features."

He said that there will be still a 8.5.4 maintenance update ("sometime in 2013") for the previous version, but the version number increment to 9 is also designed to "create buzz in the market, including awareness from the industry press and analysts who might not pay attention to a mod point release."

Brill said that the 8.5 release will be supported at least until 2016.

Wolfgang Gruener is a contributor to Tom's IT Pro. He is currently principal analyst at Ndicio Research, a market analysis firm that focuses on cloud computing and disruptive technologies, and maintains the conceivablytech.com blog. An 18-year veteran in IT journalism and market research, he previously published TG Daily and was managing editor of Tom's Hardware news, which he grew from a link collection in the early 2000s into one of the most comprehensive and trusted technology news sources.

See here for all of Wolfgang's Tom's IT Pro articles.

(Shutterstock cover image credit: Cloud Jigsaw)

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