Farewell, old friends
Category QuickPlace Team Workplace Death TaxesThe time has come to say good-bye to two old friends, Team Workplace 6.5.1 and its practically identical twin QuickPlace 7. Born April 4, 2004 and October 7, 2005 respectively, these old pals of mine brought joy, tears, laughter, anger, and on occasion, business to me. It will be sad to see them go.
I have spent months trying to come to terms with their impending death, writing over and over what I thought would be a proper epitaph. But the words never came. They just never came. So in the spirit of all that is good with the Internet, I will borrow what I believe their last words would be (if software could talk) from Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658): "My design is to make what haste I can to be gone."
I felt that much more meaningful than Billy the Kid's last words ("Who is it?"), but nowhere near as funny or prescient as Denis Leary's thoughts on death (sorry, unprintable, this is a family-friendly blog).
So now is the time when you say aloud, what in the world is Novak talking about? Well every product comes to life, even ones we don't think should (you can't believe the temptation I have to put links here), and every product has a death. Fortunately these two were given a year's reprieve but in fact, they now have but 30 days to live. Even Gregory House can't save them.
On April 30, 2010, Team Workplace 6.5.1 and QuickPlace 7 reach the end of their support lives. Roughly translated, it means they are dead to IBM. A more exact translation is that if you have any problem and call support, they can't help you. Unless you happen to fork over cash for extended support, which can happen with some products but not all. You may have to ask.
You might want to take this opportunity to examine the IBM Support Lifecycle website (this link goes straight to the Lotus products) and see if any of your other Lotus product versions are nearing or have passed their expiration dates.
Of course, a migration path to 8.2 exists but - cue booming voice - you will have issues with many kinds of customizations (and sometimes without them) if you just jump in and upgrade without a proper analysis and plan. Having remediated many of these issues, I can tell you that the documentation - official or community - does not account for every possible permutation. You're most likely to have issues in two cases - customizations and very old sites (upgraded from versions even prior to these). My suggestion is definitely to upgrade, but to spend significant time analyzing and planning for it. Of course, your friendly neighborhood business partners are out there to help. Cough, cough.
You know, on second thought, maybe Arnold said it best:
"Hasta la vista,baby!"
(Now if only I could repeat this post for IE6...how I hate it so...)
