We don't expect anyone to give away load-balancing services anytime soon, so the value of Citrix's generosity to enterprise customers is clearly limited. But even if Citrix lost that advantage, the company continues to add innovative features to its product line, including system resource management, automated application publishing, and enhanced load-balancing and application license pooling capabilities targeted at application rollout across the Internet via remote presentation.

Although Windows terminal technology dominates the thin-client market, Web and Java technologies are well positioned to compete as enterprises and third-party developers continue their efforts to "Webify" enterprise applications.

Advocates of this approach cite several reasons why it may eventually supplant remote-presentation Windows technology as the main form of thin-client computing. First, supporters of a more Web-oriented approach capitalize on anti-Microsoft sentiment by positioning it as more open and platform-neutral. Second, they argue that because application processing is distributed to desktop computers, it is a more scalable solution for enterprise applications. Finally, they point out that it fits better with the overall industry trend toward Internet-based technologies, which place a high priority on access to applications, be they intranet- or extranet-oriented, from any browser-capable device.

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There's little question that this Web-centric approach to thin-client computing will become the norm, but that doesn't necessarily spell the end of remote-presentation technology. It's difficult to support rich interfaces via traditional enhanced HTML capabilities, and doing so using Java applets makes significant bandwidth demands and requires substantial desktop processing power. Citrix is betting that remote-presentation technologies will be integrated with Web technologies, resulting in offerings such as Java-based ICA clients and Web-based Windows application-launching interfaces. Eventually, both technologies will be key elements of the thin-client computing tool kit.

Is It Hardware or Software?
Ask a group of people about thin-client computing and many will tell you it's all about new hardware devices that replace or supplement traditional text terminals and PCs. But at its heart, the transition to thin-client computing is really all about application architectures, system deployment, and users' and IT managers' attitudes about what kind of applications to deliver to the desktop.

Looking at it from a user's perspective, you might wonder whether thin-client computing is progressive or repressive. On a positive note, both Windows terminals and network computers represent significant progress for millions of people who stare at text-based terminals every day and are thus denied access to many new applications. Replacing these terminals with PCs is not an economically viable option for many organizations, particularly in branch-office environments, because support costs are too high and bandwidth constraints are severe.

On the other hand, many current PC users will view with great suspicion any attempt by management to take the computers off their desks and replace them with devices that are less powerful and flexible because it saves the company money. Sure, some workers will look favorably on a move toward simplicity, but those who view the PC as a customizable desktop tool, a very personal extension of the workspace, will resist the move toward conformity.

Luckily for those workers worried about ceding control of their desktops, change happens slowly in most IT organizations, especially if they're dominated by people who have built careers around a PC-oriented skill set. It's a variation of the old PC/mainframe debate and it will take time to find common ground. Many IT managers will resist going thin--sometimes for personal reasons, sometimes for technical reasons, often because they are already overwhelmed by the support requirements of the existing infrastructure and have no time to consider alternatives. But they will soften when they realize that thin clients are the only viable, cost-effective solution for many of the application deployment problems they face.

What are those application deployment problems? First, there are the workers whose requirements are limited to just a few different applications, none of which places great demands on processing power. For them, a PC is overkill and a Windows terminal or network computer is just the ticket. Second, there are remote users, connected via a network at speeds measured in kilobits rather than megabits per second. Here, too, thin clients can excel. Third, there are users who need to access their customized application environments from generic desktop devices that aren't configured for specific users, an application that just begs for a server-oriented approach. In the long term, there will be mobile workers who need access to key applications via a portable, untethered device--another great opportunity for thin clients.

But focusing on PC replacement leads to perhaps the biggest misconception about thin-client computing. There are substantial benefits to be derived by implementing thin-client computing along with traditional PCs. Whether it's remote-presentation Windows, HTML or Java, it often makes sense to implement an environment in which access to relatively stable personal and group productivity applications is delivered via a fat PC client while access to more dynamic enterprise applications comes through a thin-client interface.

You won't save quite as much money this way because you'll still have to manage networked PCs, but application deployment will be greatly simplified and there will be less resistance. The Program Neighborhood application-publishing and deployment capabilities found in MetaFrame 1.8 reveal Citrix's strategy to integrate local and server-based computing in a way that makes the location of application processing transparent to users. You click on an icon and up pops an application. Sometimes it runs locally, sometimes it runs on the server, depending on which approach offers the best combination of functionality and cost-effectiveness.