MACBU and MSTSC and RDP 6.0 :)

Today I meet with Brian. Brian is Product Manager in the MACBU (Mac Business Unit). Brian and team work on Microsoft products for the Apple Mac. Definitely a cool place to work. Everyone seems to have at least one MacBook (Pro) or better. Channel9 did a video some time ago. You can find it here.

Brian and I were chatting about MSTSC. Yeah, today is acronym day of the year. MSTSC = Microsoft Terminal Server Client. With Windows Server code name "Longhorn" Microsoft will also ship an update to Terminal Server, the client software and the protocol with be updated to RDP 6.0 (RDP = Remote Desktop Protocol). The new software will allow users to run an application on the server while the actual application window appears on your remote client's desktop.

Big deal? Well, Citrix has an excellent product that does this for quite some time already. And if the feature set for Terminal Server for Longhorn does not change, their solution will certainly be superior to ours. Nevertheless what will ship with Longhorn is already quite sophisticated. Check out this Channel9 video or read a summary compiled by Brian Madden. I use the new remote application feature quite extensively for Outlook. The email client installed on a server in my office, the application windows displayed on the local laptop desktop. BTW, this works well on the Intranet and through port 80 over the Internet via a Terminal Server gateway.  Cool.

My goal for the meeting with Brian was to figure out if we will support RDP 6.0 on Apple Mac and when. Guess what, no information to share.

We should certainly support RDP 6.0 and in particular the remote application feature on Mac. No need for Parallels or Bootcamp. Just connect to your remote Windows app and off you go.

You can download today's Remote Desktop client for Mac here. But you won't get Remote Applications, not even when connecting to a Longhorn or Vista system.