Most of the time, I think of xendesktop as being the OS that does everything you do, and xenapp as the one that does nothing. I’d like to explain a little bit more here though so I hope you enjoy it.
Xenapp is xendesktop’s new operating system, which is the culmination of all the work done by the xendesktop team over the last two years. It’s an OS that aims to make xendesktop a “single computer experience” by focusing on the areas of the OS that are most important to most users, and getting rid of the rest.
XenApp is basically xendesktop, minus all the fancy apps. The goal is to give users a simpler OS that works better for them, and the goal of the whole team to make it as good as possible, so if the new version is good, the old version will be good.
XenApp is a new Linux distro based on Xeneron, the same Linux project as Ubuntu, and aims to be the same as Ubuntu, but a full desktop distro. So it’s got a “full” operating system, but it also comes with all the fancy stuff on top. The team is aiming to give users the simplest and most user-friendly desktop environment available.
This is not necessarily true. For example, Ubuntu is a desktop distro with a lot of extra stuff, and is not as simple to use as a full-blown OS. Ubuntu is built around the Unity desktop, and you have to install every single application you want.
In fact, the team behind XenApp is really pushing the minimalism-ness of Ubuntu. As a result, some of the most useful applications are not installed by default. The team behind xendesktop is pushing the use of an advanced desktop environment called KDE Plasma. This is not something that should be considered a must for every Ubuntu system. A better alternative would be to use a full-blown OS built around a full-blown desktop.
