CodeWeavers Inc, the major commercial backer of the Wine project to enable Microsoft applications to run on Linux and Unix operating systems, is taking aim at Citrix Systems Inc with the release of CrossOver Office Server Edition.

The new product enables users to utilize the server-based computing model to host Microsoft's Office applications on Linux servers and run them on thin clients with Linux or Sun Microsystems Inc's Solaris operating systems.

While version 1.3.1 of CrossOver Office Server Edition enables applications to be hosted on Linux and deployed on Linux or Solaris, an interesting turn of events will see a later version of CrossOver Office Server Edition supporting Windows as a thin client operating system. This could see users deploying Microsoft applications on Windows-based thin clients via Linux-based servers.

Support for additional client environments including Windows, Hewlett-Packard Co's HP-UX, Silicon Graphics Inc's Irix and Apple Computer Inc's MacOS are planned for future releases, according to CodeWeavers.

The company is specifically targeting Citrix and Microsoft's Terminal Server with the new product, maintaining that its per-seat licensing scheme is much easier to understand and budget for than Microsoft's complex licensing schemes.

CrossOver Office Server Edition 1.3.1 costs $1,195 for the server software, with an additional $1,185 for a 25 concurrent user license and $4,000 for a 100 concurrent user license. There are no restrictions on the number of clients that can be run on a single server, although additional server licenses are available for $595 each.

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