[THIN] Re: Question about Windows 2003

First let's compare them at the protocol level. Now ICA and RDP both support:
- Local Printer Mapping (supported since RDP5 on Windows 2000; this is NOT new 
on 2003).
- High/True Color.
- Sound.
- Local Drive mapping.
- Decent performance over WAN.

On the feature level, Windows 2003 Server DOES include Load Balancing (NLB) by 
default. 2003 Enterprise Server gives you something called Session Directory. 
Web access (like Nfuse) IS available directly from Microsoft at no cost for 
sure.
As Nfuse is a web based program neighborhood of course it shows you published 
apps, what is not available natively on Windows 2003. But as I mentioned, web 
access is indeed available and it works.

Today you have other products (example, New Moon Canaveral IQ) that will give 
you:

- Published Apps.
- Intelligent Load Balancing.
- EMF based driverless printing environment.
- Built-in Resource Manager with reporting capabilities.
- All farm usage data is available directly off the SQL Engine what means you 
can use any reporting tool like Crystal Reports to design any report based on 
any parameter you want, not like with Citrix Resource Manager (built-in only on 
Xpe).

Citrix learned a lot with them and for example, after Canaveral IQ was out they 
added support for delegated administration, better AD integration and MSDE 
support, all supported by Canaveral IQ before MetaFrame.

The main show stopper for you to move to Windows 2003 may be licensing. I had 
exactly the same case in a customer. NT4 TSE with MetaFrame 1.8 and they were 
all excited to go to Canaveral IQ after testing the product for a month.
The problem is, with Windows 2003 you do NOT have the built-in TS CALs pool; 
this means all PCs regardless of the OS running, MUST have a TS CAL (in case 
the licensing mode is set per device). In your case, for a 1000 workstations 
this may mean 1000 TS CALs or close to $70,000.
If your workstations are Windows 2000, a Windows 2000 TS will require no TS 
CALs to be purchased. You could have Windows 2000 TSs with MetaFrame XP 1.0 
FR-3. Although New Moon works on 2000, as they use RDP, if you do NOT use 2003, 
you do not get high color and sound for example. This was a show stopper on the 
project I was on. Even though Canaveral was 50% cheaper than Citrix, the need 
to go for 2003 to get high color would add another $40,000 to the project. So 
the overall solution cost (Canaveral + Windows 2003) was much higher than 
simply going Windows 2000 + MetaFrame Xpe (as all their PCs were Windows 2000).
If that is your case, most workstations running Windows 2000, I would say stick 
with Citrix in this case. It will be for sure much more cost effective than 
Windows 2003 TS in this particular case.

Cláudio Rodrigues

Microsoft MVP
Windows Technologies - Terminal Services
http://www.terminal-services.net

-----Original Message-----
From: Jason Patten [mailto:pattenj@xxxxxxxx] 
Sent: December 31, 2003 10:44 AM
To: 'thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx'
Subject: [THIN] Question about Windows 2003


One of my bosses is looking that he features of Windows 2003 Terminal services 
and wants me to detail why we should keep citrix when it would be much cheaper 
to drop it and use only 2003.  I am currently looking at what 2003 Doesn't have.

We currently have a about 10 citrix servers in 2 farms serving close to 1000 
workstations, all of them remote.  So far I can think of 
1) Change everyone from Citrix clients to Terminal server client software
2) NO published Apps for centralized application control
3) No Nfuse
4) No load balancing?  *I havent read very far yet so I'm not sure of this
one)

Apparently Print mapping and drive mapping ARE supported in 2003

Anything I am missing?
Currently we are still at NT4TSE and MF1.8SP2

670,616,629 mph.  Its not just a good idea, its the law.
********************************************************
This Week's Sponsor - Chip PC - The Next Step in Thin Client Technology. Choose 
from a wide range of options offering industry-leading, innovative thin client 
solutions http://www.chippc.com/products/hardware/index.asp
*********************************************************
Useful Thin Client Computing Links are available at: 
http://thethin.net/links.cfm
***********************************************************
For Archives, to Unsubscribe, Subscribe or 
set Digest or Vacation mode use the below link: 
http://thethin.net/citrixlist.cfm

********************************************************
This Week's Sponsor - Chip PC - The Next Step in Thin Client Technology.
Choose from a wide range of options offering industry-leading, innovative thin 
client solutions
http://www.chippc.com/products/hardware/index.asp
*********************************************************
Useful Thin Client Computing Links are available at:
http://thethin.net/links.cfm
***********************************************************
For Archives, to Unsubscribe, Subscribe or 
set Digest or Vacation mode use the below link:
http://thethin.net/citrixlist.cfm

Other related posts: