For quite some time now, Citrix has had the ability to stream applications on demand, either to XenApp servers, or to desktop/laptop PCs. If you own current versions of XenApp, you can use it. Microsoft also has an application streaming product called App-V, which it evolved from its acquisition of Softricity a few years back. They recently announced that they were going to discontinue the App-V for Terminal Services licenses, and just bundle the rights into what is now (in Windows 2008 R2) called the Remote Desktop Services (“RDS”) CAL. So if you own Server 2008 TS CALs or 2008 R2 RDS CALs, you’ve got the rights to use App-V to stream apps to your Remote Desktop Servers a.k.a. Terminal Servers.

Not wanting to be left out of the application streaming game, VMware went shopping a while back, and bought ThinApp. They maintain that ThinApp is better – or at least safer – because it runs exclusively in user mode, whereas both App-V and Citrix App Streaming require the explicit installation of an agent that contains kernel components.

So what’s the real story? Which application streaming technology should you use? Which is really best? As is so often the case with IT, the answer is a resounding, “It depends.” It’s sometime frustrating, but the fact is that we work in an industry where there is often no single “right way” to do something. But today I ran across a blog entry over in the Citrix Community Blog area that did such a great job of delving into the differences that I thought it was worth linking to here.

Check it out and let us know what you think.