Citrix XenDesktop 5 has arrived!!

Posted Dec 4 2010 by Scott Cochran with 0 Comments

I wrote a post last night about the release of Citrix Web Interface 5.4, and that the most exciting part of it’s release was that it meant XenDesktop 5 would be released soon. Well less than 24 hours later Citrix has officially released XenDesktop 5 and it is now available for download!!

When you select an edition to download there are two sections, Standard and Custom. Standard is packaged as a single download and Custom breaks down the components for individual download. Oddly under the Standard section for XenDesktop 5 Platinum the package is 18.6 GB! Even with all the products crammed into one package I have a hard understanding what is taking up all that space, but I will find out soon enough when the download completes.

I will begin setting up XenDesktop 5 and View 4.5 in my lab this week and over the next couple of weeks I plan to write a comparison of the two products. The competition in the virtual desktop space couldn’t be better for innovation, and not just between Citrix and VMware. Products like VERDE from Virtual Bridges, vWorkspace from Quest, and Leostream bring features that push the big boys to innovate at a much faster pace.

Here are some links to get you started with XenDesktop 5. Enjoy!