I will be probably writing a couple articles about the features we can now see on Windows ‘Longhorn’ Server BETA 2 (a public beta by the way). After installing it yesterday, I played with the Terminal Services Gateway part (the RDP over HTTPS thing) and I think there is something wrong.

That is why I am asking myself this morning, ‘Am I the only one that thinks TS Gateway sucks?’. I will explain why. As Citrix and other companies like Provision Networks are more focused on getting the medium (not Citrix) and large companies out there using their products, we, mere mortals working on two-server shops out there or even the medium shop with a buch of TSs, would expect Microsoft to focus their efforts on us.

After playing with the Gateway all I can say is it works. But it is a major PITA to deploy. Something that should be as simple as the 2X LoadBalancer (to me, the most simple HTTPS gateway out there - no wonder I was part of the original team that created such thing ) is now as complicated as the Citrix Access Gateway. Ok, it does all kinds of crap and has all kinds of access policies. Neat. But the small shops do not give a **** about that. They want a point-and-click wizard with no more than 3 screens. Simple as that. But no, the TS team at Microsoft decided to go down the Citrix path.

Great for us TS consultants. I am sure their German approach on the TS Gateway and probably on the web interface (did not play with the latest version yet) will keep us busy for a while.

Bad for the small shops out there that will never figure out what the hell Microsoft was thinking.

I do think they do not have usability brainstorm sessions on the TS team. If they do I am sure they are all on early Mondays when everyone is pissed off, so screw usability.