Years ago, I decided that Data General was the Rodney Dangerfield of the computer industry. Products that were cutting edge, often a year or more ahead of the competition (anybody else remember the Data General One?), but no respect. These days, however, I think IBM -- and in particular Lotus Notes -- may be a better candidate.

Here's an article by InfoWorld's Jon Udell in which he quotes an example of capability-based security that is illustrated by a description of how it would react to the Melissa worm. He goes on to ponder...

The capability literature seems to suggest that none of our conventional languages or environments can be straightforwardly aligned with the capability-based model, and if that's so, it's hard to see how these ideas could ever thrive outside the research lab. Of course both Java and .NET do offer evidence-based code access security mechanisms, and I wonder whether, or to what extent, these map to what the capability folks are talking about.

Despite the fact that the context is specific to email, Udell makes no reference to the fact that Lotus Notes has had evidence-based code access security -- PKI-based digital signature on code, and the ECL to control finely-grained permissions -- since release 4.5. It's been there for nearly a decade. And nearly two and a half decades ago, I recall sitting in an IBM-sponsored lecture at Dartmouth College, which included a discussion of... guess what?!... capability-based security on IBM's System 38. From his other writings it's quite clear that Jon Udell is familiar with Notes and Domino, so why not mention it? Because, as Rodney would say, "I tell ya... IBM don't get no respect".

1. Tim Brown08/01/2005 10:57:16 AM

Rich - I think you got Jon's attention:

http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2005/08/01.html#a1279

2. Patrick Logan08/01/2005 05:48:16 PM
Homepage: http://patricklogan.blogspot.com

Yes, I remember DG and the DG One. I worked there in the early-mid 1980's when the One came out and the mini's could kick DEC's butt (where they matched up.

Unfortunately they could not compete across all the product lines.

3. Patrick Logan08/01/2005 06:00:41 PM
Homepage: http://patricklogan.blogspot.com

Lotus Notes -- I never tried it, but I've always liked the concept. I guess these days it would have to be rewritten for LAMP and made open source.

Never tried System 38 either. Market-wise it seems ahead of its time even today. The Intel 432 even more so technically.