[GRLUG] Amerisure ditches its PCs, goes all virtual

[Adam Tauno Williams]

On Wed, 2010-04-07 at 10:52 -0400, mikemol at gmail.com wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 10:35 AM, Ben DeMott <ben.demott at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > I know at Alticor they use / are testing a combination of
> > Thin-Clients, Vmware Application Emulation, and Citrix... basically
> > allowing them to use a thin-client and swap-in/out any version of
> any
> > program, while keeping the users profile 'roaming' and valid.
> > In concept this sounds like a great idea - but the complexity
> involved
> > to manage and track down bugs... Plus the limitations it imposes on
> > the use of software is incredible.
> As an aside, there's a whole class of potential bugs that open up in a
> Microsoft Terminal Services environment. If a software developer uses
> things like named {mutexes|pipes|events|shared memory|any of a dozen
> other shared memory objects}, he's exposed to different namespaces
> based on whether he's looking for system-wide synchronization or
> session-wide. I don't expect all developers choose the correct
> namespace based on their software's needs.

"all"?  As an admin of a TSE server solution - I'm going with "None".
We've had several software vendors have to make 'special terminal
server' editions of their software.  And you have to run your TS in NT4
security compatibility mode to get most software to work;  which is a
major mess inducer.

And if I here, "I don't know, we outsource the development of that
application, let me see if I can get you a contact...." one more time
@*&(^(@*&(* time!    As an aside, they never can.  Often times because
their outsourcing firm "doesn't usually return our phone calls".
Amazing.