We use Citrix Metaframe at work. Most users of the Citrix system useOne of my clients is planning to upgrade their network, and I'm pricing MS (Terminal services + a whole n/w of new desktops + licenses - ouch). What I want to do is put Linux on all the old desktops, and have graphical access to 1 windows machine - what can I run on Linux that will do this?
I know I can use VNC, but it's a bit clunky, especially since the 1 Windows app that the users need to access is their main app (which they use all day).
Anyone had experience with the Citrix ICA Client running on Linux? It looks promising.
Any other hints as to what I could use?
-- Sonia Hamilton
a small Wyse thin client, which is WinCE running in Flash -- it sometimes crashes as you might expect.
I have the client installed on a Red Hat 8 desktop system because I need
to admin a pile of Unix systems.
The server farm runs Win 2k and is fairly fast unless someone else runs
a memory-hungry application.
The system does NOT save on Windows licenses (you still need to buy one
license for the server, one CAL for each user on the server, plus one CAL per user display. plus the Citrix server license).
The Citrix client license is free (as in beer).
The cost savings are in desktop support, which in a largish company are
a significant cost to running a business.
Performance-wise: good for running office apps, ERP/CRM clients and the like. It will play movies but only in a sucky little window, and beware
of upsetting other users by hogging all their memory.
On the server side, the memory should be as much as will fit in the
server farm. Clients need to be automatically disconnected each night to prevent server-side crashes due to memory leaks.
Having said all that, you might want to investigate the new Sun Java desktops; I saw a demo the other day. Very nice stuff. They run Office style apps from Staroffice.
I don't see why, in a small office environment, you can't run Open Office from a Linux desktop.
Check what applications your users need to run; most can run from Linux these days. Most of the larger manufacturers (with a couple of annoying exceptions) have ported (or will be porting) their applications to Linux. Examples: Computer Associates, Adobe, Mentor Graphics...
Regards,
Jill. (sneaking Mike's desktop for a moment)
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