Technology, schmeknology

There was a ZDNet article the other week by Peter Galli about IBM's announcement of Sametime 7.5 on Linux (http://linux.webbuyersguide.com/news/4282-wbglinux_news.html). My favorite quote (by Scott Handy, IBM VP of WW Linux Strategy):

"We have now proven to ourselves that this single programming model that spans Windows, Linux and the Mac is now ready. This follows our single programming model for the server, where we standardized on Java," he said.

Some observations from a customer who has been testing Sametime 7.5, based on "gold" code released by IBM earlier this month:

• Sametime 7.5 client takes 30 to 60 seconds to launch depending upon workstation
• Sametime 7.5 client takes 30 to 60 seconds to authenticate depending upon workstation
• Sametime 7.5 client reported as extremely unstable on Citrix 32-bit and 64-bit test servers
• Sametime 7.5 requires desktop to be rebooted almost daily, or memory leak will consume all resources
• The dependency on the Java Virtual Machine has proven problematic with multiple COE images containing different JVMs
• Issues utilizing AWM web-based tool have been experienced after installing Sametime 7.5. Resolution uninstall Sametime and JVM and reinstall JVM.
• Privacy Settings (allow to see me online/offline) are not saved and must be reset after restart
• Users with a Sametime 6.5 server are unable to save changes to their buddylist
• Intermittent Client Crashes when saving Preferences
• User interface is cluttered and difficult to navigate. Multiple levels of options are difficult to locate. Out of the box settings are not standard/best practice settings.
• Intermittent issues with HTML being transmitted to non 7.5 users during a conversation instead of plain text
• Video Codes have not been updated since 1999 and are not part of IBM's strategic direction for the product, must use third party vendor
• Install file is not SMS compatible and requires the user to have administrative rights to the desktop
• Install file has grown from 10MB to 48MB which impacts the ability to distribute the client
• Intermittent issues with thee Screen capture functionality will not work for 7.5 to 7.5 conversations
• Business Card and Image functionality not supported using Domino authentication (Requires LDAP, which is not possible due to the size of our directory)
• No integration with TeamSites, Outlook or Office Applications - planned for 2H 07
• No integration with desktop authentication/active directory - planned for 2H 07
• No stress tool available to validate capacity information - planned for 1H 07
• User who is removed from Sametime Directory and denied accecss can continue to use Sametime until they logout - planned for 2H 07
• Client is based upon Ecliple platform, however, the implementation has been customized and is no longer a standard Eclipse implementation, therefore standard Eclipse applications do not function as expected with Sametime 7.5 This was done to improve performance, but now limits the integration capabilities

Yep, sounds proven and ready to me...