I recently tried the newly released XenApp Plug-in for Mac, previously known as Mac ICA client.

Overall I had a good experience with it. It's simpler to use and feels more like native applications than earlier version.

Here are a few things I learned that you may find useful:

• This XenApp Plug-in contains a new component called Dazzle. Dazzle is an application that allows you to "install" your favorite published applications so that you can launch them easily later just like native applications.

• Dazzle doesn't however launch published applications.

• Launching from Web Interface from browser is still supported.

• Dazzle relies on XenApp Services (previously known as PNAgent service). Please make sure you provide PNAgent URL not Web Interface URL when asked about server address.

• Once you click the add button next to a published application in Dazzle, an application shortcut is placed in /Application/Dazzle folder. Then you can treat the application just like any other locally installed applications. You can launch it from that folder or drag it to the dock for example. At first I was not sure what happened when I clicked the add button.

My wish:

The published applications, once "installed", behave very much like native applications. One thing that is missing still though is the ability to drag a file from a finder window to a published application. For example, I would love to attach a local file to published Outlook by dragging the file and drop it into the outlook window.

There are certain behaviors of Dazzle that I wish were different. But once I learn how to use it properly, it is not a problem for me since I don't have a need to use Dazzle often. It's more like an installer for me. What's most important to me is the experience of actually using my favorite published applications.

Overall, I am happy with the improvements. Keep up the good work Mac team!

You can find another review by Orestes with pictures here.

Try the new the new Plug-in (client) now.

You can download it from here

I'd love to hear your comments and your experience. I will be happy to relay the feedbacks to the team who developed this release. If you are seeking help with an issue, I'd recommend posting it to this forum and leave a link to it in your comment so that I and others can better help you.

Ray (Ruiguo) Yang
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Have you seen the error "You have chosen not to trust XXX Server CA, the issuer of the server's security certificate (SSL error 61)." on Citrix Linux Plugin for XenApp (formerly known as ICA client)? It may be because the certificate authority from whom you get your server certificate is not trusted by your client.

I've got questions from users about this error. And I've made a request to product team to mitigate this issue. Please see comments from my earlier blog.

There are articles you can find on the Internet which describe a solution. However some users found videos more helpful than text only version. So I decided to create a video version of it.

You will need to download the right certificates. If you have questions, you may want to ask your server administrators or your certificate authorities who issue your server certificates. Alternatively you may be able to export the certificates you need from your firefox browser on the same Linux machine.

Here is an article I found that contains useful text based instruction and has a script that automates the process. You may need to customize the script to fit your needs.

I hope in the future, the product team can find ways to mitigate this issue. One step is to trust more certificate authorities by default. It's not difficult to implement. But I was told it might require some legal work to redistribute certificates from third parties. Another possibility is to share the trust with Firefox which will require more develop work. What do you think? Do you know how other Linux applications solve this issue?

Here is my earlier blog that explains how to install and use Linux ICA client.

I'd love to hear your feedbacks.

Ray (Ruiguo) Yang
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A pivotal part of Project Independence is the technology at its core.  An obvious choice for Citrix, and many other virtualization companies, is to select the Xen open-source technology as the basis for a bare-metal hypervisor.  The wonderful thing about having Xen at the core of the hypervisor is that Citrix,  undeniably the experts in Xen, has teamed with Intel, undeniably the experts in hardware virtualization, to build the core client hypervisor.  This is the best recipe for success that I've ever seen.

The Intel and Citrix collaboration, known as Thunder Lake, is  a joint program intended to bring many proven server based virtualization technologies to Intel vPro client desktops and laptops.  At the heart of the Citrix client hypervisor is open source Xen with its architecture that is uniquely designed to ensure strong isolation between VMs running on a single device.  Several key Intel technologies like VTx, VTd, TXT, and TPM will be leveraged by the Xen hypervisor such that Citrix products and technologies can bring features previously found only on server based solutions to the client platform with full local execution.  For example, since Xen is the most up to date technology using Intel's VTd hardware, it is well suited to pass through device control directly to the client in a way that doesn't impact security.  Hypervisor features like Xen's support for VTd will solve some very tough problems for client virtualization.

A key requirement for a client hypervisor is a seamless user experience.  This is one of the main differences from a server-based hypervisor.  To accomplish this, hardware devices like Graphics and USB perform just like they do today but now on a platform running multiple VMs - all this without compromising security.  On the Xen client hypervisor you will get full 3D graphics, including Vista Aero, all the while maintaining full isolation between VM's.  This ensures that the corporate applications and desktops are safe from vulnerabilities that could copy your display and keystrokes.      

Today, Xen offers excellent isolation between VMs.  With our new client hypervisor, security will be enhanced even beyond today's standards.  By incorporating encryption and support for Intel's TXT technologies the Citrix client hypervisor will check and measure the boot process.  Now data and OS are safe even if client platform has been compromised by removing the disk.

The exciting thing for us at Citrix is that Project Independence along with the Intel joint collaboration project will bring leading edge hardware and software technologies together for the distinct purpose of providing a better end user experience and better security.  For years it seems an improvement in security meant a decrease in user experience or performance.  More than ever most of us are PC users and soon we will be able to own and control our Desktop and therefore be in control of our experience and productivity.

 Matt

XenApp and XenDesktop provide the means for users to access their Apps and Desktops from a wide variety of platforms and devices. At Citrix our vision is to create a world where anyone can work and play from anywhere. Mobility is not new to Citrix. There are XenApp clients available today for Windows Mobile and Symbian devices, but small form factor devices have had their challenges. Slow, unreliable wireless networks, small screens and awkward user input models have relegated hand held access to small and highly specialized market segments. But that's all about to change.

The latest generation of hand held devices with their large, high definition screens and the availability of high-speed wireless networks are changing the game in a big way! A hand held device such as an iphone connected to XenApp via a high-speed 3G network yields a remarkably usable experience.

While serious content creation might have to wait for an external keyboard and monitor, consuming content like reviewing a spreadsheet or a patients records and simple tasks like approving an expense report are quite frictionless. And because you're accessing your content via XenApp and XenDesktop your access is fast and reliable and you never need to worry about your valuable data being compromised if you misplace or loose your phone.

I've been fielding quite a few inquiries lately about our strategy and plans for the iPhone. I thought it was time to let everyone know where we are and where we're going. The guys on our Mac development team in Chalfont, UK have just recently finished porting the core XenApp engine over to the iPhone platform. This was a great deal of work and the guys have done a brilliant job.

As you can see, pretty cool, but we still have quite a bit of work to do. During the next stage of the project we will be crafting a user experience that provides a natural, transparent and effortless user interface in keeping with the high standards set by our friends at Apple.

It's tough to say at this stage when we would have something that we could share with you but I promise if you watch this space we will provide regular updates on our progress and schedules as they reveal themselves.

Its the continuous and enthusiastic feedback we have collected from you all that has helped get this project off the ground. If you haven't done so already please check out Chris Fleck's iPhone blog and cast your vote.

Al-

If you are interested in running ICA client on Linux, I've created two short videos showing the step by step instructions. Unlike windows ICA client, installing Linux version of ICA client requires more steps although it is relatively straight forward after you watch the video I hope. I used Ubuntu Linux as an example. Other Linux distributions may work slightly differently.

How to install ICA client

How to use ICA client

Click here to see all of my videos.

Here is my earlier blog that is related to installing ICA client on Ubuntu. 

I hope you find the videos useful. Love to hear your feedbacks. For example, your experience with other Linux distributions will be interesting.

Acknowledgment:

I found many articles on the Internet about installing ICA client on Linux. Here are some good examples I referenced

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CitrixICAClientHowTo 

http://bin-false.org/?p=13

http://www.hanckmann.net/?q=node/13 

Ray Yang

The Mac ICA Client 10.x has been completed and released to web. Thanks for all the Beta participants who provided their valuable feedback. Check out my earlier post for details on this client feature set. One new thing you will see in this client (compared to the Beta client) is a new icon for ICA. It looks way cooler compared to our previous Mac ICA icon. You can download this client from the client download page and remember that this is a universal binary client and hence can run on both Intel and PowerPC Macs.

To introduce myself, I am Sridhar Mullapudi from the Presentation Server product management team. I want to talk about our upcoming Mac ICA Client release and also request participation in a Beta program to give us some feedback. If you are interested, send a mail to Mac-ICAClient-Beta@citrix.com. As a Mac person myself, I am excited about this long awaited release. The main features in this release are

• Universal Binary Client - This client will run natively on Intel and PowerPC based Macs
• Seamless Windows - Ah! Finally. I guess I don have to explain what this feature is
• Session Sharing - Multiple application sessions from a user can share the same session. This means faster application launch times for subsequent applications.
• Improved file transfer speeds (at least twice as fast as before). You will see a big difference when you transfer files over a high latency link
• Session Reliability - This will let users reconnect automatically to the application(s) when connection is lost without displaying annoying dialogs
• Pass-through authentication - This is now enabled using Kerberos (the local machine and the PS environment should be set up to enable Kerberos)
• SpeedScreen image acceleration - This helps improve user experience when viewing web pages that have images etc.
• SpeedScreen Progressive Display - This is a cool feature introduced in PS 4.5 that dramatically improves (provides a local experience) when accessing 2-D applications etc
• SecureICA - This is not a new feature but we dropped it in the last client release and are introducing back due to strong customer request. Though Citrix strongly recommends using SSL for the ICA encryption needs, customers still use and like the simplicity of SecureICA and hence this support will be maintained for a while.
• Printing enhancements - Any printer available to local Mac application will be available for PS delivered applications. Users can also pick and choose their printer (not just relying on their default printer) and can change page sizes, layouts etc
• Keyboard Pass-through This will give the user an option of using Mac specific keyboard shortcuts that can be applied to the ICA Client itself (without passing it to the server application)

Mac OS 10.5, 10.4 and 10.3 versions will be supported with this client (though the recommended OS versions are 10.4 and 10.5)

Mac ICA Client is a high priority for Citrix and we will constantly innovate on this platform (we have already started planning for the next release). Some cool things we are thinking for the future are, ability to subscribe to applications (so you can put just the apps you need on your doc or desktop and can always have a one click access to them), much better integration with local desktop (use application icon instead of Citrix icon for the app on the dock, spotlight integration, simpler file type association etc). If you have any suggestions, feel free to share it with us.