As a Microsoft licensee, Santa Cruz, California-based Tarantella said it is the first company to deliver and support an RDP client for Linux written to Microsoft’s own RDP specification, enabling a Linux desktop or thin client device to run applications hosted on Windows Server 2003 Terminal Services.
The Tarantella RDP Client for Linux also functions as a client to Tarantella’s Secure Golbal Desktop Terminal Services Edition server-based computing product, which is based on the Canaveral IQ server-based solution for Windows environments acquired along with New Moon Systems Inc in June 2003.
The product is certified to run with Linux clients from Red Hat Inc and Novell Inc’s SuSE Linux and provides full 24-bit color support, local printing and audio functionality, as well as the ability to save files locally or to the server.
When used as a client to Tarantella Secure Global Desktop, the RDP Client for Linux also supports load-balancing across terminal servers, server management capabilities, and web-based application publishing. Due for release in the fourth quarter, the RDP Client for Linux will priced at just under $50.
The company will be hoping that getting on the Linux desktop at the early stages of its adoption by businesses will help it revive its fortunes. The company will have its work cut out, however. Although Gartner Inc is set to announce figures that show Linux has shipped on 5% of all PCs worldwide this year, it expects that figure to grow to only 7.5% by 2008.
After a lackluster 2003 that saw it de-listed from Nasdaq, 2004 has started on a better note with a new management team pulling in over $19m in two rounds of funding. The company is still struggling, however, and reported net revenue of just $2.6m in its third quarter ended June 30, down 30% from $3.8m in the same quarter last year. The company also made a net loss of $3.7m, compared to a loss of $1.3m last year.
The company attributed its poor performance to its move to reposition its server-based computing products under the Secure Global Desktop brand and a focus on building technological and distribution partnerships to secure growth.
One such partnership has just been signed with UK-based server reseller Morse Plc, which will act as the company’s major reseller for Secure Global Desktop Enterprise Edition in the UK. The Enterprise Edition is aimed at heterogeneous environments with support for Unix, Linux, Windows, mainframe, and AS/400 environments.
