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Technology Stocks : Citrix Systems (CTXS) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MikeM54321 who wrote (6869)	8/8/1999 11:38:00 PM
From: Mike Buckley	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9068

MikeM, I think I understand the article from a rather quick read-through, so now you're challenging me to get into the details. :) Okay, here goes nuttin'. It's the Program Neighborhood (PN) feature of MetaFrame, and it will have some intriguing implications over the next 12 months. PN is critical not only to move Citrix from its commercial dependency on Win32 but as a key factor for Web-hosted applications. In my opinion, the author doesn't clearly elaborate on how the PN product lessens dependency on Softie, but the fact that he makes that bold a statement is important. He does mention a few things, which I'll point out below. PN is the hub of MetaFrame's application publishing facility, associating users with applications and, on the Windows ICA client only at the moment, pushing the icon right onto the user's desktop. Just as important as having a browser's icon automatically placed on your desktop. Although Citrix has stuck religiously to the concept of a dumb device, and no local processing except for display purposes, these clients will need to get smarter if they're to be flexible. With the client's PN configuration as a destination, MetaFrame goes out and looks for suitable applications. I don't have the foggiest idea how it does it, but looking for and finding the apps that can be distributed using the Citrix model has got to be a plus. What it can't do at the moment is look for X, server-side Java applications or legacy terminal applications. And the implementation relies on the Windows NT Registry at the moment -- although an LDAP-based directory will supersede this eventually, says Citrix. Maybe that's one reason the author thinks Citrix will depend less on Softie. Maybe not having to rely on the NT Registry is what he's talking about. I skipped the paragraph about the recent acquisitions. I don't know enough about the technology of those acquisitions and the author didn't explain them. In the long run,... I think that means, not yet possible but will happen soon enough. In the long run, the simple ICA protocol becomes an application broker offering full cross-platform support. And application service providers will be able to offer a far fuller range of services to Web surfers than they could with Win32. That might be another reference to being less dependent on Softie. I look at it differently, but what do I know? I look at it that Citrix is adding value to Win32 instead of depending less on Win32. After all, Citrix's entire business plan to date has been to add value to Softie's products, in which case they still remain completely dependent on those products. Just my opinion. Shoot holes in it. --Mike Buckley