Microsoft using Citrix?? Where am I??

Microsoft is offering a 'test drive' of Office 2007:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/beta/testdrive.mspx

The test drive uses a Citrix Browser plug-in....

Citrix...the bane of my worklife...

Citrix... the product that two high profile IT companies could not get to work reliably on my network - whether on site or remotely (can somebody please explain to me why Citrix would be of *any* benefit to an office worker sitting 10 metres away from the primary domain controller???? 

Citrix... that resellers will push on to potential clients even if it doesn't suit the client's environment (after all, they have to maintain their sales levels, y'know)...

Citrix... which is easily replaced by Remote Web Workplace ("RWW")  in SBS networks.  Look at my own situation - RWW is working just fine for our network but Citrix is not, because we're having a few "issues" (translation: likely f**k ups by predecessors) that are stopping VPN from working.  No VPN means no Citrix Remote Desktop.  As my miracle man said, all we need to do is find the right spanner to hit the network with - damn it, we shouldn't have to clean up such a mess (for what its worth, the new network is running as sweet as can be... so much pain was experienced while we persevered with Citrix...all that pain is gone now... all we have to do is get the Terminal Server for remote access and VPN sorted out).

RWW, on the other hand, just works via a Web browser.  Just last night I used RWW to hook into my own office PC.  I then used VNC to jump from that box to another machine that was having issues (the user needed to see what I was doing and not lose any work, yet at the same time I needed to control that box).. there's no *way* Citrix can do that.

I don't like Citrix... I don't need Citrix... Citrix is simply an unnecessary complication - and that is *before* I start discussing and considering the security risks introduced by VPN.

Office 2007 test drive using Citrix is almost as bad as Bill Gates using a Macintosh as his primary computer Wink

Published Wed, Jun 28 2006 14:53 by sandi
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Comments

# re: Microsoft using Citrix?? Where am I??

Thursday, June 29, 2006 11:12 AM by Mark Dormer
Why? MS and Citrix have been partners for years.
Not much point in bagging Citrix, it works. Just like SBS works until you f*** it up.

The comparison is flawed, you have a misconfigured product and are comparing it to a properly setup product.

Here, try this test. A coke or a pepsi with an old sock in it. What do you prefer?

I would be blaming the other "tools" who implemented it.

Wait till RWW goes bad, you can have all sorts of fun trying to fix that too.

Oh, Citrix can do remote control, it is built in, you don't need to run another tool like VNC

Maybe you can elucidate on the security issues of VPN and why RWW is so secure
;-)

# re: Microsoft using Citrix?? Where am I??

Thursday, June 29, 2006 11:56 PM by a user

I think Sandi should get her facts right about citrix before publishing her misguided opinions to the world on her blog.  As the previous poster said, Citrix has remote control built in, no need for VNC.  And VPN is secure, that is why so many companies use it to connect to their corporate network from an external source.  Just because YOU cannot understand citrix, does not mean it is no good.

Edit Sandi: This was the setup created for us by our previous IT company.

1. VPN into network
2. Fire up IE as a published application.
3.  Navigate to Nfuse using IE.
4.  Log in *again* to remote desktop.

Give me RWW any day. All I need is a web browser and I can hook into my domain controller,  my terminal server *or* any desktop machines.

Why pay all that money for Citrix when SBS2003 has all that I need built?

# re: Microsoft using Citrix?? Where am I??

Saturday, July 01, 2006 5:24 PM by petal

hi Sandi

we use citrix to publish 20 applications, many of which require different Oracle client versions, to 3000 internal users

this allows us to:
- run incompatible applications on a single client
- simplify client administration by reducing the number of clients to upgrade
- minimise network impacts during large client upgrades
- facilitate hot-desking

Edit Sandi: Yes, but if your single Citrix server goes down, nobody can work.  The chances of an entire suite of desktops failing is minimal.  By assigning applications to desktops via Server Management on an SBS I can have a PC up and running in a very short space of time - simply add the PC to the network using connectcomputer, and all required applications are either automatically installed with no user interaction required, or an installation shortcut appears on the desktop.

Don't get me wrong, Citrix has its place in the right environment.  The thing is, too often Citrix is recommended when it is *not* appropriate.