A couple months ago, I posted about a VMware-sponsored report that compared View 3 to an older version of XenDesktop. I've gotten a lot of good feedback on that response, and a lot of agreement that sponsored third-party analysis needs to be absorbed with a cautious eye. I don't think it at all means  that sponsored work isn't valuable or useful, but it needs to have a sound, transparent methodology and provide enough data and detailed context that it actually ends up being useful to the audience.

Regardless, any paid-for review is going to be viewed with skepticism, right? So that's why I'm so excited about this completely independent, non-sponsored pair of reviews that were conducted by Infoworld:

• "VMware View is good news, bad news: VMware's VDI solution makes virtual desktops real, but not particularly easy to manage" This is a brand new review of VMware View, with a final score of 7.5.
• "Citrix hits the VDI high notes: Citrix XenDesktop 2.0 leverages streaming applications, server virtualization, and swift tools for a scalable and manageable virtual desktop infrastructure solution" This review is a little older, from September 2008, based on our first "real" release of XenDesktop, and we scored an 8.3 way back then. Since then, we've added many new features and capabilities for both user experience and manageability.

We were really pleased with the XenDesktop review when it first came out, but we lacked the context of how it compared to an in-depth review of VMware's product. Now that the review of View is out, I personally think the score is even more impressive.

So if you're skeptical about paid reviews, have a look at the two independent reviews above! Then come back to www.citrix.com/xendesktop and learn more about the product and our latest enhancements.