Corel Linux to Access and Run Windows Apps

rawlink writes "Corel has announced that they are working w/ GraphOn to support their Bridges client software on Corel Linux. This will allow the Linux client to access Windows apps over a network connection, much the same way that Citrix does." I hope this won't be too expensive; it could instantly enlighten the minds of a lot of people wondering what the next OS for their LAN should be...

Comments

Windows Terminal Server

[Tenement]

To my memory the Windows Terminal Server is based (and licensed) off of (by) Citrix's server side windowing technologies.

If you surf over to Citrix's Web Site you'll notice that there already is a linux client for this server.

Simply put, if you have a WinNT TSE (Terminal Server Edition) Server or a Windows 2000 Server you'll already have access to this with native Microsoft enhancements.

With thanks

Tenement
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Re:Windows Terminal Server

[acarey]

Yes, this is interesting. Windows 2000 Server has built-in terminal services, and Citrix does indeed offer a free Linux client. Once you get past the cost of Windows 2000 Server itself, you've got a free (beer) thin-client Win32 solution. Contrast with GraphOn, where you need to buy the Bridges software itself, in addition to any Windows server costs.

The question is, do Citrix clients work with Microsoft Terminal Services? I'm pretty sure I read somewhere some time ago that MTS is a wounded version of Citrix that only supports Win32 and Win16 clients. If that's no longer the case (or if it never was the case) then this is significant. If this is still the case, then (all other things being equal) the GraphOn solution becomes more attractive, because its licensing is better (Citrix metaframe is a per-client license on the server, IIRC).

FWIW, the URL for the Linux client download is http://download.citrix. com/cgi-bin/license.cgi?client=linux. Maybe someone with an existing MTS setup can see if this works?

The fact is that Corel has historically (and rather tragically) always tried to offer its own solutions rather than use anything even remotely associated with Microsoft. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it may have influenced their decision to go with GraphOn rather than Citrix, assuming the products are functionally identical. But until somebody can confirm that the Citrix Linux client works with Microsoft's MTS, I'm not sure that's true.

Haven't they announced this before?

[Telcontar]

Check this story (from November): According to this "Corel Corporation will use GraphOn's Bridges(TM) software to allow access to Windows applications from Corel's(R) Linux desktops." Does this mean Corel is dropping support of WINE? As someone else has stated before, this has nothing to do with wine: Bridges is only a sort of "X server for Windows", so one can display the output of a Windoze app runner on a Windoze box.

GraphOn and Patents

[Ledge Kindred]

Remember that GraphOn is that company that claims to have a patent on displaying Windows apps over X.

Showing support for a company that goes for outrageously stupid patent things is hardly something I'd want to get excited about.

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musings

[xeno]

I see some pros and cons:

• This means that users can run windows apps on a free OS, which is good. However, connection or per-seat licenses may be required by MS, since the app is actually running on a Windows system. Lightweight clients, heavyweight licensing restrictions; windows is like glue -- you touch a box with a running MS kernel, you have to play/pay by their rules.
• It also means that the apps stay remote. On the good side, it might encourage users to adopt Linux-native apps locally, but is also might make them feel like second class citizens -- tied to a network to get familiar apps. This becomes less and less of an issue as KDE and Gnome environments begin to provide more and more general-office functionality.
• It's nice to see some movement towards server-based apps on a true multi-user system (multiple people logged into the same NT box simultaneously, a la NTTS). However, in my explorations, the licensing fees for such a config is more expensive than just buying one cheap system per anticipated concurrent user (a farm of cheap single-user-OS NT boxen) and using VNC.
• It doesn't preclude the use of WINE. This is good, because binary compatibility would be the death of the whole Win32 platform. ("A better Windows than Windows") On the flip side, it takes away some of the motivation to continue WINE development, particularly from Corel, which promised much support for WINE.
• Graphon's model means sending screen scrapes over the network & potentially over the internet. Is it encrypted well? On the flip side, using SSH to tunnel VNC is rather intimidating to the typical human.

Just some thoughts, and no real conclusion. I guess I'll stay here on the fence, and throw some more support/feedback to the WINE folks.

Jon

The next desktop OS in our corporation

[Anonymous Coward]

I am the head network administrator for a DSP design house with three locations around the U.S. Right now, NT is our primary desktop OS. However, as our tools become available on Linux, our users are gradually asking for it. Right now about 10% of our end users dual boot Linux (one of them is running it exclusively). I'm personally excited to be in a position to help these pioneers along. Although our network is based on NT file, print, and authentication services (sorry, that predates my employment) we also have a NIS+ domain for our E450's and I've been tying the new Linux systems into that domain. The feedback has been excellent. Our users have a true "roaming desktop" under Linux. They can seemlessly tie into the filesystems in the Sun farm. Our VCS jobs run faster under the same hardware running Linux than on NT (a matter of HOURS faster). The next big push I'm sticking my neck out on is eliminating Microsoft Visual SourceSafe for source code control, and migrating to CVS. Most of the network is accessible from any OS but the source control system is still M$-only. Once that wall breaks down, we'll see more Linux on the desktop. And yes, it's ready. It runs WickedFast on our P3 machines (as opposed to "acceptable" for NT 4.0). Most of the apps we need run and run well on this platform. And it is a very graceful network neighbor that makes my job a lot easier.

Cheezy solution

[twdorris]

Corel seems to be billing this as support for Windows applications under Linux. This isn't quite correct. They even go so far as to say it provides support for Windows applications with no additional hardware. That's blatantly incorrect. Not only do you need additional hardware, you need a whole PC! This is nothing more than a Windows Terminal Server solution. You have to have an existing Windows PC sitting around somewhere on your network and run the applications off it. GraphOn merely "exports" the display of those applications to the Linux client. Big whoop. This isn't the problem most people are interested in having solved.

Thomas Dorris

It doesn't remove the need for WINE

[Ian Schmidt]

Specifically, Corel is involved in WINE so they could easily port their apps to Linux. They are by all accounts almost done with this for their first round of apps (they recently split their tree from the WineHQ one so they could do beta testing without us all possibly breaking their stuff - we'll remerge once they ship :). They are even paying Wine's leader (Alexandre Julliard) money to fix Wine's last major architectural problem (only 1 address space for all processes) despite the fact that the problem doesn't directly affect their applications.

(as an aside, the Wine team has seen interest from some other "name-brand" commercial software vendors about using WineLib to port their stuff now that Corel's done the hard part - we may have enough apps to conquer the desktop sooner than you think :)

As has been stated before, GraphOn's system has completely different goals and is more like WinFrame or VNC than Wine.

-Ian "wine-devel" Schmidt