Lotus Domino's release R5 has been expanded to interact with most browsers and other non-Notes clients, so you can choose your favorite language to design Web applications. With R5 you can also centrally modify client configurations instead of hopping from one terminal to the next throughout the company. And the new Domino Administrator interface enables you to visually monitor the health and status of the Domino servers in your network from a single screen.

"There has been an enormous amount of new functionality added to Domino R5, which is great news but it means a lot of new things to learn to administer Domino R5," says Neilson. "But all this capability adds complexity, and it's easy to forget which menu you need." That's where this latest O'Reilly release in the indomitable Nutshell series can help. Lotus Domino Administration in a Nutshell is a desktop reference you'll turn to again and again to find quick, practical solutions to your organization's administrative problems.

"Domino isn't seen as 'sexy' as some of the latest hot technologies," says Neilson, "but without it, there would be a lot of companies that couldn't effectively share information, let alone have email. There is a great deal happening at both the server end and client end at the moment. For clients, Lotus is adding support for non-Notes clients (such as web browsers and Microsoft Outlook) to get more functionality in their use of the Domino server. At the server end, work is going on now to accommodate roaming user profiles and also to increase the integration with Websphere, IBM's Java web server product family."

Lotus expects increased demand for Domino partially due to a new implementation available for Linux. "There is an appendix in the book that covers Domino on Linux," says Neilson. "The implementation on Linux is pretty much the same as the other Unix variants so there is little difference from a Domino administrators' point of view. But Linux is going to be a more important platform for Domino in the future as it is adopted more and more in corporate server farms as a replacement for Windows NT/2000."

O'Reilly & Associates' In a Nutshell format is perfect for busy admins who want the facts but not the frills.

Online Resources:

• More about the In a Nutshell format.

• More information about the book, including Table of Contents, index, author bio, and samples.

• Chapter 13, Domino Server Tasks and Console Commands.

• A cover graphic in jpeg format.