Hey guys,

Just want to let you know that based on the feedback I got about the two articles I wrote about customizing the RDP Client (Part 1 and Part 2), I realized it would be great for you to have a third article explaining how to create an MSI out of that so you could redeploy the client to all your users.

You are lucky! I wrote the article and it will be published here at MSTerminalServices.org sometime soon!

Cheers!

Wilco just posted his review of the Ericom PowerTerm WebConnect software on his website. What I still do not get it is why companies are still working on improving/fixing their own seamless windows engines.

Windows Longhorn, as everyone knows, has built-in support for that and it works very well, way better than any of the third party implementations out there. So from a development perspective makes no sense whatsoever to invest any money of improving/fixing your own engine, unless it is something that is screwing up your users big time. If that is not the case, ISVs out there, do NOT invest any more money on your shell replacements. Focus on what you can do for Longhorn. Remember they will have most of the stuff you guys (2X, Ericom, etc) offer now like published apps, web interface and HTTPS gateway and many customers will simply use them because it is free and it comes with the OS. Plus it is supported by Microsoft, a much larger company.

If you guys do not have in-depth knowledge of the TS market and do not have the vision for what is ahead, you will be in troubles. Trust me.

After almost two years of ‘we will do something’-'Oh, forget about that’, Citrix finally decided it was time to improve its relationship with the SBC community out there and it is now official. The Citrix Technology Professional program is now a reality and eleven people are already nominated. Here is the inaugural list:

Shawn Bass (USA)
Douglas Brown (USA)
Rick Dehlinger (USA)
Jeroen van de Kamp (The Netherlands)
Thomas Koetzing (Germany)
Rick Mack (Australia)
Brian Madden (USA)
Ron Oglesby (USA)
Jeff Pitsch (USA)
Bernhard Tritsch (Germany)
Stefan Vermeulen (The Netherlands)

Of course all well known names in the community.

I just want to see if Citrix will focus on the SBC community as a whole or only on the Citrix fanboys.

You can read more about it here.

Cheers!

Oh boy, this is interesting… This is the information that is available on the Microsoft website:

“Ship Windows PE-enabled solutions in a retail setting. Previously-released versions of Windows PE have been available for license only to OEMs and corporations. Beginning with the interim versions of the Windows PE platform, Microsoft has created a new licensing option that also allows ISVs, IHVs, and ODMs to license any release of Windows PE. This license also provides the ability to develop, test, and ship solutions in a retail setting.

For example, if a licensed company creates a generic application that is capable of running on top of Windows PE on all Windows-based computer systems, they can ship that solution in the retail market for profit. This includes IHVs and ISVs who create test and diagnostic toolsets for OEM/ODM usage, and for retail sale to consumers in the marketplace. Examples of this include software applications such as virus scanning applications, as well as tools for testing and diagnosing boot failures or related issues. See the Tools Agreement license for more information.”

What this means? Or what do I think this means? Well first of all it is clear you can license Windows PE now. What you can legally do with it, I am not sure and that is the big question. As it works with PXE, you could in theory develop a web based management interface that will deploy Windows PE to all remote computers and connect to Terminal Servers using RDP. Or even to Citrix using ICA.

As ‘Eiger’ (see my previous blog post) this has MANY benefits over any Linux based thin client solution. First of all it is supported by Microsoft. Secondly it fully supports RDP (what RDesktop on Linux does NOT). This could be by far the best platform for ThinClient type OSs. I will contact them and check if there is any restriction on their licensing model that would prevent that.

I will post my findings here…

Not sure if everyone here knows what Windows Fundamentals is. The codename Microsoft was using for it at the time was ‘Eiger’ and it is basically a stripped down, barebones Windows XP SP2 OS to be used on legacy PCs to turn them into thin clients. Unfortunately it is available only to Software Assurance customers.

If this was available to the general public, this would give Thinstation, PXES and similar solutions a run for their money.

The main benefit here is simple: it is Windows based so all the crap that does not work properly on Linux (and there are many things) do work properly on Eiger. Not to mention RDP6 support.

Well I hope Microsoft will release this sometime soon to the general public. During the meantime I will try getting a copy to see how well it compares to the other solutions I mentioned.

Cheers!

Just saw this at Brian’s website. Citrix released a beta for an extension for Firefox that allows you to basically see your published apps on a toolbar. Cool!

This would be probably very easy to do for other manufacturers like 2X, Provision Networks, etc.

Come on guys! You can do it.

This is cool. I saw this a couple months ago and thought the idea was really impressive.

Check it out.

http://www.jack-pc.net/

As it supports Power over Ethernet, one single cable can bring you power and network connectivity.

Amazing stuff!

Well if you thought PXES was dead, nope, they were not.

As some may not know, 2X Software Ltd. acquired the whole PXES project from Diego. Last week they finally released PXES 3.0 (freeware of course). Although I have not tried it yet, it seems to be pretty close or similar to the 2X ThinClient Server (that I mentioned here many times it has one of the worst names ever chosen in the software industry as it is extremely confusing). And as it is free, it is worth big time a download and test.

If you are not familiar with it, it is basically a solution that deploys and manages a very small Linux based OS on your existing PCs and/or Thin Clients. You can then add connections to Citrix servers, plain TSs and even their own 2X ApplicationServer, for seamless windows on Linux without Citrix. The whole management interface is all web-based and really polished. And to make things scalable, the backend is SQL (MySQL) based. Neat.

Again, it is worth trying it. And now with a freeware version, you cannot go wrong. It is years ahead of solutions like ThinStation and others. No comparison.

Cheers!

So today we posted a new article at the MSTerminalServices.org. You can read about it here. Unfortunately, as I previously mentioned here, the more I play with Longhorn and the more I read about it on articles like this, the more I think there is a nutty cracker running the show at the TS development group in Redmond? Is that you Tad? Oh boy, if Microsoft subcontracts me for six months, Longhorn TS will never be the same.

Ok, another article about it.

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8822

This may be ok for a school or someone really trying to save as much money as they can. But I cannot see, at this particular moment in time, why a company would use such solution.

First of all we are still to see the ‘killer’ client application for Linux. Add to that their Office ‘compatible’ solutions like OpenOffice for example, are NOT that compatible at all; I have tried many documents ranging from simple to complex word formatted docs and crazy Excel spreadsheets with macros and no, they do NOT work properly when opened by any of the Linux ‘office-compatible’ apps I tried.

So with no Office, no support for Windows Mobile devices and still waiting for the killer app, why go for a Linux Terminal Server?

Money maybe?