Citrix is 20 years old today (still under the drinking age in the Unites States). I remember when I was first introduced to Citrix. It was back around 1999 when I used to work for an integrator. Most of the work I did was Novell related(yes I was a CNE back in the day). Anyway, one of the projects that came down the pipeline was something totally different. My role in the project was to visit a multitude of nursing homes throughout Mississippi and Louisiana, install a Cisco router and switch (I was actually a CCNA then too), install NICs in computers, and install this thing called a Citrix client on the PCs. My final test was to make sure the Citrix client could “talk” to the Citrix server in the main location. I didn’t really realize what was going on with this Citrix thing until about the 5th install I did. It was then that I started to think this was some pretty cool stuff. By the way, this was all WinFrame 1.x (based on Windows NT 3.51).

I started to learn more about Citrix and later got certified as a CCEA. The integrator I was working for became part of the Citrix channel and I soon found myself working with some really cool SEs like Barry Flanagan. Barry still tells a story from the first time we met – I showed him where I installed a Java Citrix client on a Novell server (Novell supported Java by then). I was like – “Barry, look – you can run NWadmin directly from the Novell server console (NWadmin was a Windows app you used to administer Novell servers).” I guess he thought that was cool, because he still talks about it.

A lot has happened since then. I went to work for Citrix in Fort Lauderdale for a while. I started this Citrix-focused website. Citrix greatly diversified their product portfolio. I’ve written thousands of lines of code (for free) to extend Citrix products. I became a CTP. And, I’ve done quite a bit of technical public speaking (mostly Citrix focused).

So, I guess it is a good thing that I had to travel to all those nursing homes to setup that Citrix thing. By the way, I still remember some of those roads in Louisiana. I remember driving down “Devil’s Swap Road”. I also had to drive down a road that didn’t have a name, but I was told I would recognize it because the sugar cane was really tall that time of year. Also, as it turns out, nursing home food isn’t that bad.