relational databases vs. not-so relational databases

I've been struggling with my co-workers, big Lotus Notes enthusiasts, who believe that Notes is just as good if not better than any RDBMS (obviously IBM's sales/marketing people got to them first).

I have done some development with Notes and it is possible to develop a relational database (kind of) with Notes, however, it lacks sql. You can use LotusScript and/or Agents to handle database maintenance/functions, but it is very tedious.

Personally believe that a relational database (if designed/implemented correctly) are more powerful and manageable than any notes database ever could be. I also believe that while Notes is a RAD tool, development is fairly easy, yet frustrating to associate RDBMS theory to it.

Does anyone have any insight into matter?

Thanks

• j