[GRLUG] A strategy for Windows, Linux and thin client.

[Adam Tauno Williams]

On Tue, 2009-08-11 at 09:09 -0400, peyeps at iserv.net wrote:
> Ran across this at Infoworld:
> 
> http://www.infoworld.com/print/87066
> 
> "While a business might have decided to run Windows XP for the past seven
> or eight years without upgrading, the desktop hardware that was originally
> installed has been replaced one or two times. In most cases, this means
> Microsoft has sold you one or two more OEM desktop licenses with your new
> hardware, even if you're not using them to run Vista. If Microsoft's
> Windows XP licensing agreement had allowed it to be virtualized and VDI
> had been mature in 2001, you could be running the same full XP license
> today that you bought then without spending a penny on additional
> operating system licensing in the meantime. That's obviously not good for
> Microsoft, and VECD is its answer to prevent this from happening in the
> future."

The key here is "If Microsoft's ... had allowed" which it didn't.  An
OEM licensed OS is not transferable.

> This made me stop and think.   If you are running a server farm servicing
> thin clients with a Microsoft Windows desktop.  Buying perpetual desktop
> licenses for however many users you are servicing, and running on a
> virtual machine that "never changes", running on top of Linux using VM
> Ware does make sense, if you don't need to depend on Microsoft's client.

VMware sells just this solution.  It is nowhere in the proximity of
"inexpensive".

> I have to admit that I don't know what open source software is available
> that will allow you to run a remote windows desktop from Linux.

rdesktop?  RDP is well supported on LINUX.