Free book on Windows Server 2003 Terminal Services

There’s a new free electronic book you might want to register for as realtimepublishers.com gears up its coverage of Windows Server 2003.

The book is called “The Definitive Guide to Windows Server 2003 Terminal Services,” and is being written by Greyson Mitchem, who also wrote the wildly popular “Definitive Guide to Windows 2000 Terminal Services.” The book is being sponsored by TriCerat Systems, and can be found at https://www.tricerat.com/ebook/ where the individual chapters will be available for download. TriCerat, by the way, is in the business of after-market support for terminal services and other Microsoft and Citrix technologies.

Mentioning Citrix, as I just did, reminds me that the Fort Lauderdale company had some interesting things to say about the merger of New Moon and Tarantella, which I highlighted a couple of weeks ago (see link below). I mentioned that the combined force could give Citrix some real competition in the extended terminal services space. Now, Citrix PR person Gillian Farquhar wants me (and, by implication, you) to know a few things.

Citrix’ take, for example, is that the merger was one “…between two small players with declining market share.” The market continues to be dominated by Citrix, which “…owns between 76% to 95% of the market depending on which analyst you talk to.” Farquhar wanted to remind me that “Citrix offers solutions for both Windows and Unix environments already, and supports deployments of all sizes from massive enterprise standardizations to workgroups,” areas in which I thought the new merged companies might challenge.

I don’t expect that Tarantella/New Moon will wrest control of the terminal services market from Citrix, which does provide good product and service at reasonable prices. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of room for niche players and customizable services that the new company could profitably exploit.

You’ll know more about those niches and services if you register for the free book (and actually read it). Chapter 1 is already available, and the rest will soon follow. What you’ll learn about in this chapter is:

* Server Roles

* Introduction to Windows Server 2003 Roles

* New Answers for Old Challenges

* Remote Desktop

* Compatibility Modes

* RDP 5.2 Protocol

* Group Policy Based Configuration

* ADSI Access to User Parameters

* Session Directory

* Terminal Server Licensing

* Terminal Services Licensing Components

* License Types

* Installing Terminal Server Licensing

* License Server Discovery

* License Server Administration

* License Server Group Policy Settings.

Subsequent chapters will be called:

* Chapter 2 – Installing and Configuring the Terminal Server Role

* Chapter 3 – Load Balancing and Session Directory

* Chapter 4 – Terminal Services Administration

* Chapter 5 – Application Installation and Compatibility

* Chapter 6 – Managing Security and Critical Updates

Register now, learn about terminal services and how they can be helpful to you and your organization. Then check out the additional offerings from Citrix and Tarantella to see if they can be useful to you.