21 Sep 2007 12:00 AM EDT
[ Tags: mac,  ica,  client,  presentation server ]

posted in XenApp by Sridhar Mullapudi

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.

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Comments  (Hide Comments)

I just realized that there is a problem with the e-mail address. Let me fix it soon.

Posted by Anonymous at Sep 21, 2007 00:00 | Reply To This

The e-mail address should now be working.

Posted by Anonymous at Sep 21, 2007 00:00 | Reply To This

Thank you for the information. I will definitly be signing up. One problem we have with the Mac client at the moment is lack of support for smart cards. Specifically DoD CAC cards. Do you know if that functionality is planned for the new version?

Posted by Anonymous at Sep 21, 2007 00:00 | Reply To This

This new client will work with DoD CAC cards but needs a fix from Apple (to address a smart card issue) which will be in Mac OS X 10.4.11.

Posted by Anonymous at Sep 24, 2007 00:00 | Reply To This

Thanks for your e-mails registering for the Beta. We plan to make it available in late October.

Posted by Anonymous at Sep 25, 2007 00:00 | Reply To This

My main issue is making sure it works with Safari--it does not right now. (Does w/Firefox). Would be happy to beta.

Posted by Anonymous at Oct 03, 2007 00:00 | Reply To This

I must admit I have been very disappointed with Citrix's demonstrated commitment to the Mac platform recently. The most recent release leaving out PCL4 and PCL5 printers together with no support for 128 bit connections was the final straw. I specialise in Citrix and Vmware but on the strength of these offerings decided to concentrate on vmware. My current main client has a lot of macs and the printing issues via citrix have been numerous. I think it is very important that Citrix backs up it's ?ny platform anywhere' statements. Mac connectivity got me into citrix 8 years ago but I'm still chasing old bugs like the client moves to the "connected to "splash screen without ever opening the app window. I first saw this problem in version 1.8 ! I've asked for the beta and will give it a try but I'm looking for a quantum leap in DEMONSTRATED commitment !

Posted by Anonymous at Oct 10, 2007 00:00 | Reply To This

David, Safari browser will be supported by WI and Mac ICA Client. I use it occasionally though I am a Firefox user.

Posted by Anonymous at Oct 11, 2007 00:00 | Reply To This

I agree that it has taken us long time to update the Mac ICA Client. I don't want to give any excuses but be assured that we are investing in the Mac client and the upcoming release is a sign of our committment. We will have the SecureICA functionality (128 bit encryption) back in this release. The reason why we dropped it before was due to our push to customers to use a much secure solution (SSL). But we have heard it from our customers that they still love SecureICA as it is simple and suits their use case. The PDF printing we have right now is a far better solution than PCL4 and PCL5 and you will see more printing feature enhancements in this release. I am not sure about the connection issue you refer and our development team says that they haven't heard that from any customer. Please escalate the issue if you still have it and we will be happy to fix it. Thanks for your feedback and hopefully you will be very satisfied with the upcoming Mac client release.

Posted by Anonymous at Oct 11, 2007 00:00 | Reply To This

I agree, the older versions missed out on making ICA on mac a great app. I have been using different versions for the past 5 years. I am glad to see the new version. Keep up the great work and BLOG ENTRIES

Posted by Anonymous at Oct 26, 2007 00:00 | Reply To This