Vista 32 v. 64, what is the benefit?

[jgrobertson]

I installed Vista 64 and now discovered that I can not run my Lotus Organizer. I could if it were the 32 bit version. IBM has said they are not planning to update Organizer to remove the 16 bit code (that is the problem). My whole life for the past 9 years is in Organizer. I don't know of a reasonable replacement.

So, what to do?

Is there a big difference in performance between 32 and 64? My machine has a 4.2 rating. If not, then maybe I should downgrade.

Does anyone know of a reasonable replacement for Organizer that is at least all 32 bit code?

[asiafish]

Lotus Organizer is a rather old program, why not look to a more modern PIM and import your data?

I use a BlackBerry and it is capable of syncing to Organizer, as is a Palm, though I'm not sure about Windows Mobile. The easiest way would be to sync your data to a PDA and then sync the PDA to your new program, unless the new program had an import function, which is unlikely from Organizer.

I use MS Outlook 2003 and find it very intuitive and powerful. There are many other options as well.

[tomh009]

Outlook is probably the best default choice without knowing what specifically you need and how you use Organizer. Although few people do it, it's also highly customizable with extra fields, views etc.

[jgrobertson]

Outlook is probably the best default choice without knowing what specifically you need and how you use Organizer. Although few people do it, it's also highly customizable with extra fields, views etc.

I have used the note pages in Organizer extensively for passwords, accounts, logins, email account setups, internet account details, etc. etc.

I have not found anything quite like that in Outlook. Outlook, when not on an exchange server, is a bit clunky as well. I have about 20 email accounts so I use Thunderbird which is far better than Outlook for multiple accounts.

[asiafish]

I have 8 email address in Outlook, and while one of them is an exchange server, that wasn't the case until late last year. Whether through Exchange or stand-alone POP accounts makes little difference in the way Outlook handles data.

[jgrobertson]

I have 8 email address in Outlook,

Unless it has changed, all the mail goes into a single inbox. Then filters have to be made to sort it out. With Thunderbird, each account has its own set of folders and inbox. This is easier for me.

[tomh009]

No ... each account has its own inbox, although you can choose to have it all delivered into a common set of personal folders.

In any case, you could use Outlook just for contact management, and keep using Thunderbird for your email.

[asiafish]

Outlook lets you choose delivery options, but only between personal folders and an exchange folder, and I'm not sure if you can split individual accounts or not, though don't see anything that would prevent it.

The problem with outlook is that calendar and notes are stored in the same file as mail, and it is a proprietary file that if corrupted would cause data loss. That is not a problem in Exchange, which I'm quite addicted to.

That said, I used Outlook since 1998 for separate email (non-exchange) accounts and never lost any messages, appointments or notes. It was fast enough, reliable and has a lot of features.

[Tholek]

I have 8 email address in Outlook,

Unless it has changed, all the mail goes into a single inbox. Then filters have to be made to sort it out. With Thunderbird, each account has its own set of folders and inbox. This is easier for me.

No ... each account has its own inbox, although you can choose to have it all delivered into a common set of personal folders.

In any case, you could use Outlook just for contact management, and keep using Thunderbird for your email.

Well, it may differ on which version you're using.

I rarely use Outlook, but I did use Outlook Express as my main mail client for the fact it supported Hotmail, and loaded faster than Outlook. Now OE had to have mail rules created to have POP mail filter down to individual folders. Otherwise it all goes in one box and you don't know to whom it was sent unless you opened it.

That changed when I upgraded from OE to Windows Live Mail (the current OE). It creates individual folders by default, so when I imported my OE settings and mail, I had to move everything to the new folders. Took a bit of doing for the amount of accounts I have, but WLM is soooo much faster than OE now.

Seeing as WLM is supposed to be the OE to the current version of Outlook, I wonder if it does the same, and that you are actually using two different versions of Outlook there.

[asiafish]

I'm using OUtlook 2003, though I hear 2007 is radically different.

[ptantra]

I have used the note pages in Organizer extensively for passwords, accounts, logins, email account setups, internet account details, etc. etc.

You could try looking into Lotus Notes. All Thinkpads come with a standalone license for Lotus Notes so you should be able to download the client from IBM's website and just install it. When Organizer was discontinued, corporate users were recommended to migrate to Notes (mostly as part of corporate migrations). End user/consumer users mostly went with PIMs for Palms, etc. There was an Organizer/Notes conversion utility but I'm not sure what parts of Organizer were converted.

In addition to basic contact/address book functionalities, Notes has a "Personal Journal" that acts very similar to how you were using the note pages in Organizer. Notes offers far more though. For example, you can attach files, full text search attachments, password protection, database encryption, etc. The standalone version won't let you use it for email though and without IT support, you probably wouldn't want to either.

There's a definite learning curve to Notes, but I personally think it's one of the best software packages on the market. I use it for everything you use Organizer for and more. Be forewarned though. It's a divisive product. People either love it or really hate it.

[jgrobertson]

You could try looking into Lotus Notes. All Thinkpads come with a standalone license for Lotus Notes so you should be able to download the client from IBM's website and just install it. When Organizer was discontinued, corporate users were recommended to migrate to Notes (mostly as part of corporate migrations). End user/consumer users mostly went with PIMs for Palms, etc. There was an Organizer/Notes conversion utility but I'm not sure what parts of Organizer were converted.

I have a couple of Notes CDs (have owned 7 thinkpads). I had a hard time figuring out how to use it in a stand alone setup without a server tied in. I was not aware that new Thinkpads come with a Notes license, there was nothing in the documentation about that.

But, having used Notes in the corporate environment, I would be happy with it if I can set it up without a server to vend mail etc.

[ptantra]

I have a couple of Notes CDs (have owned 7 thinkpads). I had a hard time figuring out how to use it in a stand alone setup without a server tied in. I was not aware that new Thinkpads come with a Notes license, there was nothing in the documentation about that.

If you check the tabook.pdf that has your machine in it, you should see the reference to the inclusion of the Notes standalone license (but not the software).

I've only done a standalone install once. All I did was run the client install without inputting any server information. In Notes 7.0.2, the Personal Journal database was created by using the "journal6.ntf" template which was provided as part of the install.

If you're using Notes in a corporate environment, just create the new database off the journal6.ntf template and you should be good to go.

[jgrobertson]

Does Notes run on Vista 64? Looking at the IBM web site I did not see anything about that. Organizer does not, as it has some 16 bit code.

You are correct, the license is included and I have to call for a CD for the standalone version. I do not currently work where they use notes.

[steveg47]

You could try looking into Lotus Notes.

Lotus Notes does not support the 64bit version of Vista.

jgrobertson,
I don't see why you should have to give up Lotus Organizer. If it were my decision I would change my OS to Vista 32 as I see more disadvantages then advantages to Vista 64. It is very unlikely you'll notice any decrease in performance with Vista 32. You could also keep Vista 64 and use a vm product such as VMWare or Microsofts Virtual PC to load a guest Vista/XP/2000 32bit OS from which you could run Lotus Organizer.

[RonS]

I have the same problem with QuickBooks 2003. It won't run on 64-bit Vista. So, I installed Microsoft Virtual PC 2007, and install XP as a virtual machine. QuickBooks runs that way. The same solution will probably work for Lotus Notes.

[ptantra]

Lotus Notes does not support the 64bit version of Vista.

Ahh, you're right. I forgot that only the Lotus Domino server runs on 32 and 64 bit. The Notes client is still 32-bit and looks to remain that way for a while.

Sorry.

[jgrobertson]

Ahh, you're right. I forgot that only the Lotus Domino server runs on 32 and 64 bit. The Notes client is still 32-bit and looks to remain that way for a while.

32 bit code will run on Vista 64 so long as it is ALL 32 bit and does not have any legacy 16 bit code in it. Do you know if anyone has tested Notes client for that?

[jgrobertson]

I installed Microsoft Virtual PC 2007, and install XP as a virtual machine. QuickBooks runs that way.

How much disk space does all that take? The way it is now, Vista is using up 60 Gbyte on my 100 Gbyte drive (thinkpay you know).

[jdhurst]

I weaned a client off of Organizer to Outlook XP and within 1 month, nary a peep. And that was 4 years ago. Newer versions of Outlook will do just as well. This client was also using Act! and a couple still do, but the Blackberry people have now dumped Act! for Outlook as well. ... JDH

[jgrobertson]

weaned a client off of Organizer to Outlook XP and within 1 month, nary a peep

For contacts and calendar, outlook is ok. But the way I use organizer is as a general note and detail collection place. I use the Notepad part of it extensively. I don't really see an equivalent feature in Outlook.

It would be good to migrate to something as Orgainzer is not very secure. The Notes sounds interesting. Other options are to move everyting to a PIM with Intellisync (which still reads organizer). For now I have exported the data to access (but it truncates the record length) and txt files.

[jdhurst]

<snip>
For contacts and calendar, outlook is ok. But the way I use organizer is as a general note and detail collection place. I use the Notepad part of it extensively. I don't really see an equivalent feature in Outlook.

I keep extensive records of client items in the notes section of my calendar. I then copy and paste these daily records into invoices in Quickbooks for billing. The notepad area of the calendar keeps mileage, billing detail, parking costs, misc. notes and other things. It is not perfect, but it is fully satisfactory for my needs and my client needs. ... JDH

[ptantra]

32 bit code will run on Vista 64 so long as it is ALL 32 bit and does not have any legacy 16 bit code in it. Do you know if anyone has tested Notes client for that?

No idea. I checked IBM's DeveloperWorks and saw that an upcoming maintenance release 7.0.3 will be the first version that's been tested to work on 32-bit Vista. 7.0.2 supposedly runs, but runs with issues. Check out:

http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.ws ... wg21252343

It would be good to migrate to something as Orgainzer is not very secure. The Notes sounds interesting. Other options are to move everyting to a PIM with Intellisync (which still reads organizer). For now I have exported the data to access (but it truncates the record length) and txt files.

For what you're trying to do, Notes will fit the bill perfectly in terms of your required functionality and security. I pretty much do in Notes what you're doing in Organizer. I have one database where I track all accounts, logins, passwords, challenge questions, notes, etc. The notes field is a rich text field that allows you to add notes (with text formating), attach documents (any file type), paste in images, etc. In addition to the password information, I've gone paperless at home by storing all important papers, statements, etc. in Notes.

I guess the real question for you is "Is 64-bit mission critical to you?" If you dropped down to 32-bit Vista, you can continue using Organizer or other any other software package. And probably save you a lot of headaches in the short term, or at least until more mainstream products move to 64-bit.

[kulivontot]

I would say 64-bit is not worth it. Except for massive computational scientific work, the speedup will not be too noticable. Also breaking your legacy programs is undesirable. Also note that you will not be able to install any unsigned drivers (which generally isn't a problem until you try and hook up any device 5 years or older). Also most programs are still 32-bit, so for these cases, speedup is non-existent. Contrary to what AMD/Intel want you to think, 64 bit is still not main stream yet.