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A new feature that maintains Notes application and document state during a restart beats Microsoft's 'Freeze Dry' technology to market.

Lotus Notes and Domino, IBM's answer to Microsoft's Office and Exchange offerings, have been updated. IBM notes in a press release how Notes 7 has more than 100 new features to help users.

IBM mentions new memory functions present in Notes. If a systems shuts down and restarts, open applications and documents will be preserved. Microsoft recently touted this as an upcoming feature called Freeze Dry in Windows Vista. It looks like IBM is already there.

On the Domino side, IBM has included a design element that allows it to function as a web services host. Domino applications can be extended to the web, using "open, standards-based Web services," which would mean open source. IBM has been a booster of open source projects for some time.

Notes 7 will run on Windows 2000 or XP; Mac support for future versions has been promised. Domino runs on Windows 2000 or 2003 servers, as well as versions of Linux, AIX, IBM's zOS, and Solaris 9. Support for the now open source Solaris 10 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 will be forthcoming.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.