There are so many things I really like in 8.5.1 that it's hard to pick one to start with.. today, I want to write something about: Performance.

You know, performance was a hot issue since Notes 8 moved to the Eclipse framework. Notes 8.0 was hardly usable. 8.0.1 was slightly better, 8.0.2 was ok. 8.5. was faster and quite usable on modern computers.

But from my experience, 8.5.1 is the client we all waited for. It feels much faster on all machines I tested it on!

In my company we have some users with old machines, having only 2GB of RAM, old CPU and harddisks. They started to hate me as I ordered them to move to Notes 8, and when I didn't look they started "nlnotes.exe" to get the basic client :-)
Now I deinstalled their Notes carefully, installed the current 8.5.1 beta (available for design partners only), moved their mailfiles to our 8.5.1 beta server and upgraded the design to the 851 template.

And guess what? 8.5.1 Standard (Eclipse based) starts fast. As fast as the basic client in previous Notes versions. And it feels much faster in many situations: opening mail, working with mail, working with complex Notes apps etc. It is a joy to use.

I'm pretty sure this client will make many of our customers very happy. Congrats to the Lotus devs to finally domesticate that Eclipse beast and to transfer it to a brave lap dog.

Disclaimer: this blog entry is about beta software, everything I wrote is subject to change, there is no commitment when it ships or what functionality will ship.