Is there any viable alternative to Citrix MetaFrame?

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Editorial

Is there any viable alternative to Citrix MetaFrame?

Article Information Rating: (based on 45 votes) Comments: 26 Doc#: 230 Popularity Rank: #41 this week, #38 all-time

Author Information Brian Madden (more from this author)

August 23, 2004 Gabe and I just finished a new version of our server-based computing software roundup. After looking at the feature matrix, it seems like there are a lot of pretty good alternatives to Citrix MetaFrame Presentation Server for a fraction of the cost. This leads to one question: If these other products are so good, then why isnt anyone using them? Sure, a lot of people are using pure Terminal Server, but I think the fact of the matter is that in todays world, Terminal Server just doesnt have enough out-of-the-box features for most people. I mean Ive seen some really big pure-TS environments, but those environments are few and far between. As for the other products, Ive heard anecdotal stories about customers using them, but it seems to me that the current market is about 90% Citrix, 5% pure Terminal Server, and 5% everybody else combined. This begs the question, If these other products are so good, then why arent people buying them? Of course I dont have a solid answer, but my gut feeling is: 1. People have already invested in Citrix. 2. People worry about the supportability / longevity of the smaller vendors. A Current Investment in Citrix Lets face it. Citrix owns the Windows server-based computing market. Theyve owned it since it was invented, and theyre going to own it for a long time. Citrix has done a really good job of converting all their customers to subscription-based licensing. Theyve also done of good job of introducing volume and enterprise licensing programs. This helps bolster the fact that most current Citrix customers simply have too much invested into Citrix to switch to another platform. Who will support the alternative solutions? Apart from trying to get their names out there, the second tier vendors have to convince customers that theyll actually be in business long enough to fulfill their products support requirements. Lets take Tarantella, for example. My personal opinion is that Tarantellas Secure Global Desktop, Terminal Server Edition is the most feature rich of the second tier server-based computing software products. They offer the most important functionality that Citrix offers at only $60 (compared to $250 - $350 for Citrix). So why is no one buying Tarantella? I think people are worried about the company. Consider this:

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http://www.brianmadden.com/content/content.asp?ID=230 (1 of 6)1/26/2006 7:33:41 PM

Is there any viable alternative to Citrix MetaFrame?

Tarantellas revenues for their past quarter were less than $3M. Unfortunately, their expenses for that same quarter were $6M. Theyre spending twice as much money as theyre making. Tarantella is a public company, and their stock price is currently around $1.50 per share and trading on the Pink Sheets market. Tarantella recently dropped the price of their main product that competes with Citrix MetaFrame to $60 per user. While this certainly spurred some sales, it also made other companies nervous. Tarantella also has some challenges with their brand in the Windows server-based computing space. They're historically known as a spin-off of SCO and as a company that makes UNIX products. They bought New Moon to extend themselves into the Windows space, but unfortunately they chose to kill the New Moon brand (which was far too early in my mind). People still dont think of Tarantella as a competitor to Citrix and they forget that they bought New Moon. (On a side note, people who worked for New Moon are probably really upset that Tarantella bought them.)

So that leaves DAT and Jetro. DAT has never been serious in this space. Their product is very weak, and in fact is has not been upgraded in over a year. Jetro is an Israeli company with a very small US presence. I only know of one small Jetro distributor in the US. All this leads to Terminal Server. TS is both taking market share from Citrix and creating new markets, however, both of these are small today. I still think that once the Bear Paw stuff comes out that will change the game, but people will still use Citrix in the enterprise space for a long long time.

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Reader Comments That's the way life is ....

Posted by an Anonymous Visitor on 12 December 2004 This message was originally posted by Ulrich Stamm on August 25, 2004
On Pubforum in Paris we said "Citrix Products are great, but the company isn't" ;-) Citrix is well known, their products are really good and 90% are using them. The've become a multi-product company, ok, but who cares? Some other products (for example password manager) are existing on the market..... Tarantella and others do not have many installations. I've been on a tarantella roadshow. I really good product, but no references in germany, and a very poor marketing machine. We've offered some forums at our www.dcug.de ( German Citrix User Group ) but for over 6 weeks noone answered.... now ... since they have problems, they asked for our board to deal with.... Citrix is very similar to Microsoft. On their business they are very powerful on the market an other products are lost in the dark.... Regards, Ulrich Stamm Deutsche Citrix User Group http://www.dcug.de

Reply to this >> Reply and quote this >>

Commitment to quality
Posted by an Anonymous Visitor on 12 December 2004 This message was originally posted by dw on September 2, 2004 As in all upstart companies, Citrix went through a growing stage. Right now, there is an unprecedented focus on product quality and customer satisfaction. From the executive staff all the way down, there is a vision for everyone to take responsibility and to be accountable. Reply to this >> Reply and quote this >>

citrix is the same in remote applications as microsoft for pc environments: evil

http://www.brianmadden.com/content/content.asp?ID=230 (2 of 6)1/26/2006 7:33:41 PM

Is there any viable alternative to Citrix MetaFrame?

Posted by an Anonymous Visitor on 12 December 2004 This message was originally posted by an anonymous visitor on September 18, 2004 citris is no better than microsoft or any other monopolistic company. once they own a piece of the market, they want to own the whole world. they have outrageously highly piced licensing schemas and are behaving like just every other giant. see the "you cant rent this room/space for giving citrix trainling classes case"incident....
http://www.brianmadden.com/content/content.asp?id=218

Reply to this >> Reply and quote this >>

Re: citrix is the same in remote applications as microsoft for pc environments: evil
Posted by an Anonymous Visitor on 12 July 2005 Mr Anonymous Visitor,
In my 7 years of integrating Citrix projects 99% of these companies have had a return on their investment within 12 months. Your comments are very similar to people I have experienced in 2 continents who have : a) installed it badly b) not used all of the features or installed the wrong version c) never got past the initial phase of thinking of a Citrix implementation as a capital expenditure I think you should give Citrix credit where it is due, they created this market space and without them this techology would not exist. After all Gartner and Wall St are both telling Citrix that they have grossly underpriced their license prices but they refuse to increase them. If you still need convincng check out Citrix Access Essentials or Presentation Server 4.0. Brendon - Australia bthwaites@regal-it.com.au Reply to this >> Reply and quote this >>

Re: Re: citrix is the same in remote applications as microsoft for pc environments: evil
Posted by an Anonymous Visitor on 24 August 2005 You guys need to check out Provision Networks www.provisionnetworks.com Reply to this >> Reply and quote this >>

Most of Jetro sales are in Europe and Israel.

Posted by an Anonymous Visitor on 12 December 2004 This message was originally posted by an anonymous visitor on September 22, 2004 No Comment Reply to this >> Reply and quote this >>

Where does Citrix fit in the On Demand space?

Posted by an Anonymous Visitor on 12 December 2004 This message was originally posted by Propero Propero on September 23, 2004 www.propero.net Propero is product that is a great alternative to the headlong rush towards anonymity that Citrix offers. It is also backed by IBM and has a focus on using this type of software across the enterprise, rather than for remote access. How many Citrix licences are being used? How many major organisations are using Citrix for a small numbers of users? Much of that is used for remote access. We are guilty of pandering to monopolistic companies, come on be brave!!! Reply to this >> Reply and quote this >>

Tarantella
Posted by an Anonymous Visitor on 12 December 2004 This message was originally posted by Matthias on September 27, 2004 We had Tarantella's sales guy there early this year and we talked about Canaveral IQ. That product is simply out of date. No farm-publishing and you have to have IIS on every box. Talk about security... Reply to this >> Reply and quote this >>

propero, laugahable!

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Is there any viable alternative to Citrix MetaFrame?

Posted by an Anonymous Visitor on 12 December 2004 This message was originally posted by an anonymous visitor on October 7, 2004 Backed by IBM maybe, but LOST every single deal going head to head with Citrix! Whose credibility takes a hit here, Citrix, Propero or IBM? On Demand with limited SMB propriarity solution, methinks not! Reply to this >> Reply and quote this >>

Depends on the application

Posted by an Anonymous Visitor on 12 December 2004 This message was originally posted by moremhz on October 8, 2004 Citrix is at the head of the class in Enterprise environments but the current iteration of TS is giving it a run for the money. The main issue is- what is the application? Both Citrix and TS are overkill for many applications they're used for. Who's at fault? Poor marketing by the alternative solution companies. WinBridge and GoGlobal, for instance, do a great job of web-enabling applications for SMB customers. It all depends on what the client requires and what the salesperson is selling. Reply to this >> Reply and quote this >>

RE: Tarantella
Posted by an Anonymous Visitor on 12 December 2004 This message was originally posted by an anonymous visitor on October 13, 2004 We are seriously evaluating Tarantella TSE. It's pretty good. Your servers are part of a team which serves a similar purpose as a farm. Only one server needs a web server, that's to both launch applications and to administer the system, you only need to publish the launchpad and relay ports to the web 80 and 443. There is room for much improvement which they seem to be doing in future versions. The more like there EE product it becomes at the same price as TSE the better! But a very good base product at the price. Hoblink looks great, but at the price does not beat Tarantella. Reply to this >> Reply and quote this >>

Here's a simple, affordable, viable alternative to Citrix...

Posted by an Anonymous Visitor on 12 December 2004 This message was originally posted by an anonymous visitor on October 14, 2004
GO-Global for Windows from www.graphon.com Reply to this >> Reply and quote this >>

Re: Here's a simple, affordable, viable alternative to Citrix...

Posted by an Anonymous Visitor on 02 July 2005 The most simple, fast and affordable SBC software is GO GLOBAL. It does the same of CITRIX, TS, TARANTELA, and you don't have to pay for TS licenses on the clients. Reply to this >> Reply and quote this >>

I thinke that peeple what carnt speel shud not throw stonees
Posted by an Anonymous Visitor on 12 December 2004 This message was originally posted by Propero Propero on October 25, 2004 The anonymous visitor that commented on Propero is seriously devoid ( that means without) of any facts nor credibility. There have been many wins for Propero which have mainly been in competition with Citrix- the lumbering giant of the industry.
Get some facts..... Reply to this >> Reply and quote this >>

Tarantella SGD v4
Posted by an Anonymous Visitor on 12 December 2004 This message was originally posted by Paul H on November 4, 2004 I have been running the final Beta of SGD v4 for a couple of weeks now and I think they may have answered the person who said it would be great if they got some of the features from the EE product into SGD, they have and it is good, very good. I am under NDA so can't go into the feature list but I suspect Mr Madden may well be able to soon. Any comments Brian? Reply to this >> Reply and quote this >>

Excellent Product

http://www.brianmadden.com/content/content.asp?ID=230 (4 of 6)1/26/2006 7:33:41 PM

Is there any viable alternative to Citrix MetaFrame?

Posted by an Anonymous Visitor on 12 December 2004 This message was originally posted by Martyn F on November 5, 2004 I have to say that this product is excellent. We have been using since its first incarnation and are still very pleased. The chap above who said you need IIS on every box is talking crap - although you do need one IIS server. We currently run 8 load-balanced servers with no issues and excellent stability. Reply to this >> Reply and quote this >>

ThinWorx?
Posted by an Anonymous Visitor on 12 December 2004 This message was originally posted by MartinW on November 7, 2004 What about GENUIT's ThinWorx application (http://www.genuitcorp.com/)? We are an SME planning an application server farm and Citrix is too expensive. I read a bit about it on a TechRepublic article, and am yet to download a trial. Has anybody here used it? Reply to this >> Reply and quote this >>

Re: ThinWorx?
Posted by an Anonymous Visitor on 14 December 2004 We are a reseller/hosted applications provider and did our first install of thinworx for one of our customers. Customer purchased 35 seats of Thinworx and has been thrilled with the product. The Thinworx application was an easy sell to the customer, offering the functionality of a Citrix implementation with the pricetag only slightly higher than Windows TerminalServer. The installation was smooth and tech support, when needed, was responsive and professional. That's the winning combination, allowing us to provide secure application access without great complexity or great cost. Deployment to multiple remote clients was equally simple.
-Kim Heraux Data Systems Worldwide Tel: 818.883.9800 Reply to this >> Reply and quote this >>

Re: ThinWorx?
Posted by an Anonymous Visitor on 16 December 2004 But it doesn't support seamless windows? Reply to this >> Reply and quote this >>

Re: ThinWorx?
Posted by an Anonymous Visitor on 22 February 2005 Have a look at this product - Konect - www.desktopsites.com Reply to this >> Reply and quote this >>

RE: Re: ThinWorx?

Posted by Shawn Bass on 22 February 2005
quote: ORIGINAL: Guest Have a look at this product - Konect - www.desktopsites.com

WOW. Not only did they rip off the "4 pillars" marketing concept from Citrix but they even stole "Subscription Advantage" NICE! Shawn Reply to this >> Reply and quote this >>

RE: Tarantella SGD v4

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Is there any viable alternative to Citrix MetaFrame?

Posted by an Anonymous Visitor on 12 December 2004 This message was originally posted by psims on December 8, 2004 We also looked at Tarantella v4. I only saw a slight improvement over 2.1, esp with the single port relay. Some of the things about EE I was referring to are its ability to connect to databases other than MS SQL, and your web server does not have to be IIS. We also worry about scalability with TSE.
As to propero -- I would love some facts but I don't see any good info on how it compares as a solution with Tarantella (or Citrix). Looking into GENUIT, anyone have any experience with them? Reply to this >> Reply and quote this >>

Sun Micro siding with Tarantella

Posted by an Anonymous Visitor on 14 January 2005 Perhaps the posts here are out of date. But just to let everyone know, I had a call from the Sun Sales Rep. "If you are going to purchase citrix, evaluate Tarantella first," followed by "its better & cheaper," and Sun will integrate / support them. If you are running on a Solaris Sparc or X86 it makes a compelling push, because Sun will support you. Reply to this >> Reply and quote this >>

RE: Sun Micro siding with Tarantella

Posted by Jeff Pitsch on 14 January 2005 I trust a sales rep about as far as I can throw them.
Jeff Reply to this >> Reply and quote this >>

Re: RE: Sun Micro siding with Tarantella

Posted by an Anonymous Visitor on 22 February 2005 Don't blame you, sales people will always tell you THEIR story as if all was true. I urge people to always make their own informed decision. In response to the THINWORX question, I was in contact with them (we are a small company that performs POS systems) and this product is quite in tune with citrix and tarantella at a fraction of the cost. I agree with Kim, when required, support has been excellent and even the development team was responsive to some of our requests. I would urge you to try out the thinworx software. Reply to this >> Reply and quote this >>

There is another alternative ...

Posted by an Anonymous Visitor on 22 February 2005 You should have a look at these folks and their product "Konect 5.0". http://www.desktopsites.com Reply to this >> Reply and quote this >>

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This Editorial has been categorized under the following subject headings: Citrix New Moon / Tarantella / Propalms Jetro View a printer-friendly version of this article

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