What do you think of update sites?
Category Sametime Notes
When eclipse update sites were first talked about in relation to Sametime, they were going to be the saviour to deployment wows, never visit a desk again to install a few patches, install seamlessly with no user interaction for example. These were some of the things we were promised, and sometimes that is what we get. But I can't help but think IBM is in a big mess. All these different clients, with different plug-in versions is just one big mess. Then to make matters worse there are the Infocenters. When a new version of a product comes out, it often feels like the InfoCenter folder on the server is cut and pasted to a new folder, and someone does a quick find and replace on a version number. Often you'll be punching in some version of a file in some property or xml file based upon information in the infocenter only to find out that that page hadn't been updated with the version info from the new version that the InfoCenter was supposed to cover. Personally I have found numerous hours wasted by the InfoCenters when used for installs. I've found a few times where I drill down through the links in the infocenter and it will actually miss some important step, which was probably added after the original author did the links or something. So if you ever plan to do an install using the InfoCenters, print them out! That way you know you haven't missed a step, as you only progress to the next step when you turn the page. Hopefully the infocenter experiment won't last much longer, buy sadly I think they're here to stay. So back to plug-ins, IBM needs to publish tables of compatibility, which version of sametime client, works and has been tested (if IBM still tests product, I'm beginning to wonder based upon some recent experiences), which companion product features work with the main client, which work with the client embedded in Notes, which version of notes embedded client. IBM stop being lazy, if you ship a product like Sametime Advanced, don't just put a chapter in the InfoCenter saying "edit these XML files, copy these files to create a deployment package" to make a complete client install, ship the package ready made, ready packaged. It's what people are paying for. Surely you want more users of these products? As I keep harping on, and yes I should probably change the record, but you need to focus on the initial experience of Administrators. If you make their lives harder than they need to be, they aren't going to jump to your defense when someone says, lets consider abc product instead, they've going to go, yeah it can't be any more crazy than this product.
So back to my topic, personally I like the goal of update sites, but I'm disappointed with IBM's execution. They still look in many cases like a developer feature exposed in an end user product, they need work. Why for example can't I drag a widget into the Sametime client the way I can drag a widget into Notes? Why can't customers install plug-ins through Proxies yet?
When eclipse update sites were first talked about in relation to Sametime, they were going to be the saviour to deployment wows, never visit a desk again to install a few patches, install seamlessly with no user interaction for example. These were some of the things we were promised, and sometimes that is what we get. But I can't help but think IBM is in a big mess. All these different clients, with different plug-in versions is just one big mess. Then to make matters worse there are the Infocenters. When a new version of a product comes out, it often feels like the InfoCenter folder on the server is cut and pasted to a new folder, and someone does a quick find and replace on a version number. Often you'll be punching in some version of a file in some property or xml file based upon information in the infocenter only to find out that that page hadn't been updated with the version info from the new version that the InfoCenter was supposed to cover. Personally I have found numerous hours wasted by the InfoCenters when used for installs. I've found a few times where I drill down through the links in the infocenter and it will actually miss some important step, which was probably added after the original author did the links or something. So if you ever plan to do an install using the InfoCenters, print them out! That way you know you haven't missed a step, as you only progress to the next step when you turn the page. Hopefully the infocenter experiment won't last much longer, buy sadly I think they're here to stay. So back to plug-ins, IBM needs to publish tables of compatibility, which version of sametime client, works and has been tested (if IBM still tests product, I'm beginning to wonder based upon some recent experiences), which companion product features work with the main client, which work with the client embedded in Notes, which version of notes embedded client. IBM stop being lazy, if you ship a product like Sametime Advanced, don't just put a chapter in the InfoCenter saying "edit these XML files, copy these files to create a deployment package" to make a complete client install, ship the package ready made, ready packaged. It's what people are paying for. Surely you want more users of these products? As I keep harping on, and yes I should probably change the record, but you need to focus on the initial experience of Administrators. If you make their lives harder than they need to be, they aren't going to jump to your defense when someone says, lets consider abc product instead, they've going to go, yeah it can't be any more crazy than this product.
So back to my topic, personally I like the goal of update sites, but I'm disappointed with IBM's execution. They still look in many cases like a developer feature exposed in an end user product, they need work. Why for example can't I drag a widget into the Sametime client the way I can drag a widget into Notes? Why can't customers install plug-ins through Proxies yet?
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Comments
Posted by Glen At 06:03:19 AM On 05/04/2010 | - Website - |
Fit
&
Finish.
Sometimes, it feels like IBM's WAS/eclipse-based products are the Volga of the IT world. Interesting design, but assembly needs work.
Posted by Craig Wiseman At 08:07:55 AM On 05/04/2010 | - Website - |