Microsoft Corp is today expected to announce beta availabilty for its Microsoft Terminal Server product, the thin client software for NT 4.0 formerly known as Hydra, adding Unix-like multi-user capabilities to NT. And simultaneously, Citrix Systems Inc, continuing its uneasy relationship with Microsoft, will launch its pICAsso software for NT Server 4.0, intended to extend Terminal Server to support non-Windows clients and add load balancing and other systems and applications management functions to the server component of Hydra. pICAsso uses Citrix’s own ICA protocol, while Microsoft has opted instead for its Remote Desktop Protocol, previously known as T Share and based on the ITU T.120 set of communications protocols. pICAsso supports MS-DOS, 16 and 32-bit Windows, Java, Macintosh, Unix and ICA Windows-based terminals in addition to the Windows desktops supported by Hydra. Microsoft is expected to charge for Hydra, rather than bundle it into NT Server as it did with Internet Information Server. Along with the launch, Arlington Heights, Illinois-based Cruise Technologies Inc plans to add Wirelesss thin client support to both Hydra and pICAsso through its CruiseConnect Version 2.5 product.
