[Gllug] Samba & MS Windows 7

[Richard Jones]

On Sun, Apr 11, 2010 at 01:30:45PM +0100, Alain Williams wrote:
> On Sun, Apr 11, 2010 at 11:35:01AM +0100, Richard Jones wrote:
> > On Sat, Apr 10, 2010 at 04:46:10PM +0100, JLMS wrote:
> > > You could actually have Linux desktops only, then install VirtualBox
> > > and create WIndowsXP virutal machines with all the necessary Windows
> > > software needed, That way all the infrastructure is something you can
> > > handle and trust and your users keep their Windows software on their
> > > desktops.
> > 
> > I guess .. if he wanted a setup that is even more complex than just
> > using Windows on the desktop.
> > 
> > The way to virtualize this setup properly is to use VDI, where all the
> > virtual machines sit in on central, managed server and the "desktops"
> > are just dumb clients.  It's still unlikely to be helpful for Alain
> > unless he has dozens of desktops to manage.
> 
> Yes: I can't really see how virtualisation would help, I can just see myself
> buying problems when they try something like plugging a USB device in ...

Or even getting accelerated graphics to work :-(

Red Hat recently open sourced SPICE which is a previously-proprietary
protocol for sending accelerated graphics, video, (limited) USB
events, sound, and microphone over the network from VDI client
desktops to virtual machines sitting on a server.
(http://www.spice-space.org/)

[...]
> There are 8 desktops, most are old MS XP machines, one MS Vista (home :-( )
> laptop & 2 Linux (1 CentOS, 1 Debian).

This isn't enough to make VDI worthwhile I don't think ...  Plus VDI
doesn't seem to be about reducing cost, more about making Windows more
manageable.  Your desktop clients in a VDI setup are often still
running Windows, albeit in a very limited, cut-down form.

Rich.

-- 
Richard Jones
Red Hat
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