What do you get when you mix Citrix Desktop Server, XenServer, and Citrix Provisioning Server? You get Citrix XenDesktop, and the beta is freely available at citrix.com. Al Solorzano recently downloaded XenDesktop beta and compared XenDesktop to VMWare Virtual Desktop Manager. Al does a good job of explaining the evolution of VDI and how both XenDesktop and VMWare fit in to this space. Al goes on to give a “blow by blow” comparison.

Another great resource to learn about XenDesktop is from an article posted on Frameworkx titled “Citrix XenDesktop Explained“. This article written by Gus Pinto does a great job of introducing the different components involved in XenDesktop.

Also, Barry Flanagan has posted several XenDesktop articles and videos on his blog. Citrix is also running a contest where you can submit your own XenDesktop videos to win 1 of 3 iPods. You can post videos up until May 9th. The top video winner receives a 16 Gb iPod Touch, second place receives an 8 Gb iPod Touch, and Third Place receives a 4 GB iPod Nano.

Be sure to check out these other resources on MSTerminalServices.org:

Citrix extends XenSource reach through VARs

Citrix XenSource Podcast

XenSource XenEnterprise v4: First Look

Citrix starts to market Ardence

Citrix Presentation Server and Ardence OS Streaming

Technorati : Citrix, DDI, Desktop Delivery, VDI, Virtual Desktop, iPod