Beyond The Yellow Bubble

 Amongst the many great things that happened during 8.5.1 week was the announcement that IBM was simplifying the licensing structure.  So now we seem to have (in non-legal jargon):-

1. If you wish to use the Notes client and connect to a Domino server you need either a Notes Express or Notes Enterprise CAL.
2. If you wish to develop applications with Notes designer in a stand-alone mode no license is required.  A Notes client is provided for free but ONLY for the purpose of testing those apps.
3. If you wish to develop applications with Notes designer and then upload/store them on a Domino server then a Notes Enterprise CAL is required.

Seems quite simple... right?
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But, unless I missed something obvious the one teensy weensy teeny tiny little gap in the product offering is the scenario of a person wishing to use the Notes client in a stand-alone mode.  Perhaps to run those handy dandy personal apps they have just developed using the free designer client, perhaps as a rich client mail and personal organizer client for internet hosted mail, perhaps to download some cool personal productivity tools from OpenNTF or business partners.  Or perhaps a combination of the three.  And given IBM seem to be thinking about expanding the role of the Notes client to integrate RSS feed and Task Manager it may make sense to market a Home Edition of Lotus Notes.  When Ed Brill recently posed the question "What kind of applications do you run on the Notes client stand alone" there were an amazing 89 comments posted.  Man I struggle to find 89 people to just read my blog entries!   So the topic certainly has a lot of people's interest/attention.  Was last week's announcement a clearing of the decks in preparation of a Notes Home Edition announcement?  Could it be that we might see an announcement filling this void around the mid-January time-frame?  (I happen to know a lot of IBM execs, including Ed, have that week blocked off in their calendars marked LS.  LS could be Lotus Standalone??)