Those of you grey-haired enough to remember back to Notes 2 and 3 will recall that it always was, in that the Notes client of that time always included the ability to create and edit design elements. Notes 4.6, I think it was, introduced the separate Domino Designer program, and the extra charge for it.

So why have Lotus now made Designer more freely available, or at least, made it available at no initial cost?

The possible Microsoft FUD
Well, one reason that we'll probably get from Microsoft is the Notes is Dead one again. They might say, "See, they're giving it away for free now, so it must be dead." But lets not forget that Microsoft has been giving away development tools for quite some time through its various "spark" programs.

Well, it's a stance. It's has good FUD value, and it may well strike a chord with some people. But I think it rather smacks of desperation marketing if the best they can do is come up with that, rather than offering proper, competition for what Designer, and the rest of the Notes/Domino family, can do.

Opening doors
You can regard Domino Designer as a necessary evil in the process of delivering value with Notes and Domino. Its the only way (Ok, the only way for us mortals) to create Notes and Domino applications, and it's these apps which are the lifeblood of the Notes client and the Domino server.

That includes those apps that Lotus deliver themselves, such as mail. There's a good argument, then, that making Designer more generally and widely available adds more value to IBM's investment in Notes and Domino, and our investment as customers and partners, than IBM will lose in revenue now that they no longer charge for Designer.

Ed Brill noted on his blog that with 8.5.1, IBM want to reinvigorate their development community. Frankly, I think that the core development community for Notes and Domino would have been just as invigorated by Designer 8.5.1 even if it were still paid for. After all, most of the existing development community already have licenses on maintenance for Designer, and for them, the upgrade would be free anyway.,

No, what this decision does -- and indeed, is what it is supposed to do -- is make Designer available to people who currently don't have it. In many cases, that will be people who not only are not part of the development community, but may well not be Notes users at all. Extending the Notes and Domino world to these people can only be good. But who are we talking about?