Although demand for Microsoft's software for Windows terminals is growing, some users and resellers are grousing about last-minute distribution delays, higher than expected costs, inflexible licensing and a long wait before important new features will be added.
Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition (TSE) is now shipping in quantity, after an array of delays in the distribution channel. Microsoft says the delays were due partly to the fact that some distributors apparently did not order enough copies to meet the pent-up demand.
Pricing is still a concern for some customers, especially for those using TSE's predecessor, Citrix Systems' WinFrame, and for those that have not yet adopted Windows NT Workstation 4.0 as their desktop standard. Each TSE user must have a full complement of NT licenses, which could cost up to $8,450 per person, even if the user is only casually accessing applications from the home or over the Internet.
In light of that cost, some customers are sticking with WinFrame, which is based on NT Server 3.51.
"One IS Manager said to me, and I quote, 'I'll be damned if I'm going to spend $40,000 on NT Workstation licenses just to get the NT 4 interface,' " according to a systems integrator who specializes in thin-client computing.
What will Microsoft do?
Microsoft won't change the basic pricing. Nor has it yet hammered out a more flexible licensing agreement for customers accessing TSE from home or via the Internet, according to Solveig Whittle, a TSE product manager with Microsoft's Personal and Business Systems group. "We're working on these [issues], and hopefully will be addressing them in the pretty near future," she said.
Work area ahead
Meanwhile, work has already begun on integrating the TSE code into the next major release of NT, Version 5.0, and Microsoft is prepping a bevy of new features (see graphic). Once integrated, administrators will be able to activate TSE during the installation of the operating system.
But don't expect the new features soon: Microsoft won't make interim releases, Whittle says. The new features won't be included until NT 5.0 ships, which some observers expect later rather than earlier in 1999.
RELATED LINKS
Contact Senior Editor John Cox
Two steps toward thinner clients
We review TSE and Citrix's MetaFrame. Network World, 6/22/98.
Microsoft, Citrix detail thin-client server costs
Network World Fusion, 6/18/98.
NT terminals cost too much
The new breed of Windows-based terminals, touted as low-cost desktop devices, may run into a problem: customers who think the devices are still too expensive. Network World, 6/22/98.
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