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

[peyeps at iserv.net]

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."

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.

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.  I do know
it is possible to use Webex to do it.