Microsoft Corp finally announced its Windows Terminal Server product on Monday, ending a year of uncertainty for the clutch of third party companies whose business had been to add multi-user capabilities to Windows NT. Previously known under the name of Hydra and first detailed back in May last year (CI No 3,112), Windows NT Server 4.0 Terminal Server Edition is an extension to NT 4.0 intended to give users of terminals and older PCs access to Windows applications without the need to use a full specification PC. For years before, Microsoft had been considering adding multi-user support to NT in a bid to remove one of Unix’s key differentiators. It’s a thin client schema whereby applications run on the server and are remotely displayed on the client. The software provides the ability to host multiple simultaneous client sessions on NT Server 4.0. By NT 5.0 the code is expected to have been integrated tightly within the operating system itself. Microsoft eventually included Citrix Systems Inc, the company whose business was most threatened by Hydra, in with the development credits of the product, calling it a joint development effort between the two. Citrix simultaneously launched its MetaFrame thin client software yesterday, which adds support for non-Windows clients to Terminal Server along with additional management capabilities, and uses the Citrix ICA communications protocol rather than Microsoft’s own RDP Remote Desktop Protocol, once known as T.Share. For the time being, at least, Microsoft seems willing enough for Citrix to handle all the non-Windows side of the business. Microsoft rallied the usual chorus of approval from a huge list of OEMs, software developers and customers. But the pricing of the product was causing some uneasiness at PC Expo yesterday. Unused to the multi-user model, Microsoft is asking Windows Workstation 4.0 licenses priced at $269 for each client, plus an additional $1,129 for the server side of the software. Existing Citrix WinFrame users have until the end of November to upgrade to the new software at a special all-in price of $2,600 for a 15 user system.
