Citrix Systems, a veteran in the thin market, has added the Citrix NFuse 1.5 Web-based client to its line, which includes MetaFrame and WinFrame. NFuse works over both Citrix's ICA protocol and RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol). Additionally, the NFuse client supports for both Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer and a Java client.
NFuse received the highest overall score in part because it offers very good potential integration with many corporate settings. MetaFrame and NFuse also have Unix counterparts, providing an additional advantage. Because NFuse is used with MetaFrame, it offers many of the security and scalability options found in MetaFrame and Features Release 1. These include 128-bit encryption and ticketing, which stores user login data, as opposed to passing that data across the network connection multiple times or storing it in the Web browser.
The product's usability is intuitive and straightforward. NFuse includes handy wizards for installation and setup, and template interfaces for customizing the product for an intranet.
We installed Citrix MetaFrame 1.8 for Windows NT on one Windows NT Terminal Server and Citrix NFuse 1.5 on a Web server running Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS). Citrix NFuse connects to the MetaFrame server as a Java client, ActiveX or Netscape plug-in. The Citrix MetaFrame Features Release installation was confusing. We tried to install NFuse on the same machine on which we were installing MetaFrame. The Features Release installed an XML publishing server that by default selected Port 80, which is where we wanted our Web server. Fortunately, changing port assignment is not difficult. NFuse's wizards made setup and application publishing with MetaFrame's Published Application Manager extremely simple.
When you connect to the NFuse system, the ActiveX application does not have a signed download by default -- rather the user must download the client and install it. The installation process itself does not require any user intervention. Citrix says it plans to streamline installation in future releases, and the user can easily change the installation to make the download automatic. The Java component of NFuse is the most useful of the clients from a user standpoint, since it produces a more seamless installation and connection.
As with any other application published by Citrix, the administrator is required to publish the application using the Published Application Manager. Applications enabled for certain users appear on the user's menu down the left side of the screen and by default are shown in the pane on the right side.
NFuse also stands out because of its exemplary performance in screen-refresh testing. NFuse's performance in our tests was quite good while using both ICA and RDP sessions. With the three different clients, alternatives also seemed to run well.
Citrix NFuse also offers some exciting customization features. The product offers Corporate Yahoo Portal integration, which allows companies to easily publish applications to an intranet Web site that uses the Yahoo Portal application. Citrix has also signed agreements with many other portal vendors -- including Brio Technology, Epicentric, Plumtree Software and TopTier Software -- to integrate its NFuse and portal technology with their products.
NFuse is free to customers who have MetaFrame, so we compared the price of a 25-user license of MetaFrame, $6,990, with those of other products in the review. This is quite a bit more than TSAC, which is free, and the other products we tested, which are in the $3,000 range.
Citrix NFuse 1.5, free download from the Citrix Web site, Citrix Systems, (800) 437-7503, (954) 267-3000; fax (954) 267-3014. www.citrix.com.
Tarantella Enterprise 3
The Tarantella product has been revamped since we looked at it last January (see "SCO Tarantella Offers New Twist on an Old Thin-Client Dance"). Tarantella Enterprise 3, Tarantella Enterprise 3 ASP and Tarantella Express run on many flavors of Linux, as well as Sun Microsystems Solaris and UnixWare. We installed the Windows Connectivity Pack to connect to RDP and ICA systems.
Like NFuse, Tarantella Enterprise also received high marks across the board. Tarantella Enterprise did well in product integration, with support for numerous connection types, such as Windows-based Terminal Servers, Unix application servers and mainframe systems. The product's usability is also of merit; it provides a Web-based Java administrative connection, which is accessed using the same interface to which users connect. With NFuse, administrators have to use the Published Application Manager to do this.
Tarantella Enterprise's administrative features have changed drastically. The new administrative application, Object Manager, is slick and allows for full control over applications, servers, local users and services such as LDAP. It is also scalable. The addition of LDAP support makes Tarantella Enterprise a far more compelling package than it had been. LDAP in Tarantella Enterprise enables common directory support, so individual permissions do not need to be set up on each type of machine. This is particularly convenient when running Tarantella Enterprise on Unix, because policies can be set to let users run designated applications from an LDAP server.
While testing Tarantella Enterprise, we encountered a few small problems on the administrative side. For instance, the keyboard did not take input while we were adding applications to be served. This is probably because the Java applet was not regaining focus, but just the same, having to cancel the administrative applet and reconnect was irksome. Both Tarantella Enterprise's administrative and Web interfaces are user-friendly. For the end user, navigating and even integrating into a corporation's portal site are quite easy.
Tarantella Enterprise 3, $4,995, Tarantella (a division of Santa Cruz Operation [SCO]), (888) 831-9700, (831) 425-7222; fax (831) 427-5448. www.tarantella.com or sales@tarantella.com.
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