In a software announcement the US manufacturer lists the Red Hat Enterprise distribution as a supported operating system for Lotus server and emphasizes cross platform availability.

Lotus Notes 8 builds on a new plugin extensible Eclipse architecture and offers integrated document management besides standard Groupware functions. Administrators can customize the installation to reflect their company's requirements and model internal workflows in the collaboration suite.

Besides numerous improvements to the GUI and the integration of various quick launch options, Lotus users now have a context-sensitive search feature throughout. Notes 8 now also supports the Open Document Format besides Microsoft Office and Lotus formats, and it can export documents directly to PDF. If needed, a history function will show users the history of communications with individual contacts.

According to the vendor, the Tivoli Directory Integrator combines Lotus Notes with various directory services. Clustering and replication mechanisms have been reworked to use less bandwidth than the predecessor.

IBM plans to release the English version August 17. Media and documentation will probably be released a month later.

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