CodeWeavers Release Server Version Of CrossOver

Jeremy White writes: CodeWeavers has just launched the Server Edition of CrossOver Office. Server Edition provides Windows applications like Microsoft Office to thin clients and previously unreachable platforms like Solaris/SPARC. It's designed to compete directly with Citrix and Windows Terminal Server solutions, primarily on price (watch that TCO drop, baby). The most delicious irony will come when we release a Windows client, and we start serving Windows applications to a Windows desktop through a Linux server.""

Comments

Irony?

[Anonymous Coward]

The most delicious irony will come when we release a Windows client, and we start serving Windows applications to a Windows desktop through a Linux server.""

The irony is that you are spending all kinds of time to develop an aplication that merely goes through additional potential points of failure to accomplish, well, nothing of substance. I hope you don't count this as a win...

Re:Irony?

[rmadmin]

Yeah, wait for the next 'Security Patch' to have the updated EULA. Microsoft will probably be changing their licensing very quickly. Which turns it around again and makes it useless. =)

Re:Irony?

[pVoid]

I hope you don't count this as a win

I must agree with parent, to refute grandparent that this is not a win for the *NIX community. (no pun intended)

But, I just want to add that cross platform interoperation, regardless of between where and where, is *always* A Good Thing for the whole world of computing.

What are the Microsoft licensing requirements?

[burgburgburg]

First off, do they allow this sort of distribution? If so, what sort of a license does one buy?

Of course, the cynic in me would enquire as to how long people think it will be before they explicitly forbid this sort of thing.

Win4Lin and VMWare

[sqrammi]

Aren't Win4Lin and VMWare both already serving up Windows applications (or at least full blown Windows desktops) from a Linux server? Win4Lin has worked nicely for me for quite some time. Sqram! (sqrammi.com)

Crossover Office Rocks!

[u-235-sentinel]

I've been using crossover office for a month and already love it!

Basically I was not allowed to pop/imap into the exchange 5.5 server and have been running vmware with win2k/office. vmware is great however running win2k under linux was terribly slow. Now I simply run outlook under linux/crossover and life is good. Outlook under Linux is VERY fast!

I strongly recommend their products. I'll be keeping an eye on them in the future.

Re:Crossover Office Rocks!

[Anonymous Coward]

Win2k under VMware is terribly slow??

What kind of machine do you have? My 800 Mhz P3 with 512 RAM runs several VMware Win2k sessions at the same time fine. I've been doing that for years now. I used to run Win2k under VMware on Linux on a 450 Mhz P2! Works great and fast... ????

Maybe you need more memory.

You still need an office license for every client

[Anonymous Coward]

While this is nice, you will still need an Office license for every client, so Microsoft will still be making a lot of money.

Re:You still need an office license for every clie

[FreeLinux]

True, but you don't need a Windows 2000 server license and a Terminal Server license and Terminal Server CALs for every MACHINE that connects to the terminal server. These licenses cost a LOT more than the Office licenses that you'd have to buy as well.

Congrats ????

[Anonymous Coward]

Although I fully appreciate the technical value of thier achievments I fail to see how this lowers my TCO ???? I'll still need to pay MS for the Office Licences and since most MS customers are under volume or site agreemensts this doesn't appear to be any cheaper that running a normal Terminal Server.

Why continue to chase Microsofts tail when better solutions could be developed that dont involve thier products at all.

I am not flaming ... but I think the Linux community (of which I am a proud member) can be a little blinded by thier technical prowess and forget that some of us have to justify the costs to our bosses. If its not a CLEARLY a cheaper solution, then no sale.

Congrats none the less ...

Re:You still need an office license for every clie

[Soko]

Very true - if you need to buy any more licenses, that is. This software will allow you to do two things:

1 - use the Office licenses you already have in perpetuity. No Licensing 6.0 style "software as a service" pay-me-now-and-pay-me-later is needed - it is, after all, Linux.

2 - pool the Office licenses you have, making better use of a valuable resource. Say you have 100 employees and 70 Office licenses. You can pool those 70 licenses on Crossover Office Server, and likely keep every one of your users happy. Not everyone has Word/Excel/Access open all of the time, so it makes very good sense to pool them in this way.

Soko

Cool...but,

[rindeee]

I will happily continue using SuSE 8.1 running Crossover Office (or just WINE) + TightVNC. I have used it in place of Windows 2000 Terminal Services in two production projects thus far and the customers love it. Don't get me wrong, I like what they have done with server edition as I believe it will appeal to the "enterprise" class customers who feel that money spent equals money well spent. Kudos to the guys at CodeWeavers. Crossover Office is spectacular.

ER

What is the purpose of this?

[Rwfresh2002]

This seems idiotic to me. Interesting endevour.. But what is the purpose? You still have to pay for licenses of office. Now you have to setup all this shit so people can run windows apps on linux "thin clients" ... What does a copy of win98 cost? And a PC to run it and Windows? Is this solution saving you money? Time? It's seems like a very complicated way to open Word documents. rw

Quick TCO comparison

[mao che minh]

Hmm, maybe this could bring down TCO?

Since Citrix is commonly used in conjunction with Windows clients to run remote programs, this program being Microsoft Office on some occasions, replacing Citrix with a cheaper solution and replacing the Windows clients with Linux (free), you can (duh) save money.

Lets look at a simple setup, where you have a Citrix (the XP edition, not the MetaFrame 1.8, which has a much higher intitial cost but is cheaper to add licenses too - $4,900 for the English, Win2k in fact) server providing access to Office 2000 to the type of crap systems you see on secretary workstations and library consoles around the nation: a Windows 95/98 machine with 64 megs of RAM and a 2.4 gig hard drive. A Citrix "starter" (5 licenses) runs you about $1900 bucks. The Office license is like $300-$400. The Windows client is dirt cheap or "paid for", but will still find a way to consume tech support time somehow. Oh, don't forget the cost of the Windows or Unix license for the server itself.

On the other hand, the CrossOver Office server is $1,195. With a Linux workstation and a Linux server, you dump the cost of the Microsoft licenses and can make the workstation into a true, no hassle thin client. You can then expand this equation: A 25 user licenses + Citrix runs you $5800-$8000, depending on the version. CrossOver Office would be $2,380 with 25 user licenses.

Pragmatism vs. Idealism

[RandyF]

The ideal is to kick out all M$ proprietary licenses and go with strictly OSS applications. The reality is that most corporations cannot stomach the instant switchover. Sure, OpenOffice (and others) do a pretty good job of pulling up office docs. The're just not perfect, especially on a heavily scripted M$ environment. So, what's the answer?

Bring out Linux desktops that can run the native Linux apps and connect to the Crossover Server to get to the old proprietary apps. This puts Linux on the desktop immediately but allows them to go through the slow migration that is necessary to keep their businesses in operation!

Idealism takes time. The only way to be a true idealist is to first be a pragmatist. Patients and good innovation will win the day!