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Microsoft’s Windows Virtual Desktop service is now generally available

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Re: Microsoft’s Windows Virtual Desktop service is now generally available

#11

Post by slimsag »

paxys wrote: post #5
Cyder wrote: post #2

There's still large areas just 35 miles from DC that don't have high speed internet. The cloud is STILL just for people who never leave the range of high speed internet.

> people who never leave the range of high speed internet Which is a vast majority of the US population. I agree that it is important to get broadband access for everyone, but asking companies to hold back services and features until that happens makes zero sense.

On top of that, if you want to drive companies to offer broadband everywhere -- having services people want to use everywhere that require broadband is pretty damn important.

Re: Microsoft’s Windows Virtual Desktop service is now generally available

#12

Post by ape4 »

chooseaname wrote: post #8
rb808 wrote: post #7

I have a friend who works at a big Corporation (100k employees) where everyone has a thin dumb client and windows desktop running on a server. It works great, except video stutters if not small sized. Way of the future? Its an efficient way to pool resources, and prevents people physically stealing data.

> Way of the future? Why not? Everything old becomes new again at some point.

Like X Window

Re: Microsoft’s Windows Virtual Desktop service is now generally available

#13

Post by thrower123 »

russellbeattie wrote: post #3

If Stadia and xCloud really do solve the latency issues inherent in client/server computing - and show that it's economical - one could almost imagine Microsoft launching a consumer version of this with a "terminal" that was little more than a screen, keyboard and network connection... Like Sun Microsystems reborn. The whole concept would, of course, enrage certain sections of the populace including most of HN's read…

How do you beat the speed of light? That's ultimately what we're up against here. High-frequency traders lay down special fiber lines between the exchanges to get the absolute fastest possible ping times, at enormous expense[1]. That gets a 13 ms ping time from NYC to Chicago.

My experience with a Steam Link, hardwired on a local ethernet makes me skeptical that any of these cloud gaming platforms will really be practical.

[1] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfin...

Re: Microsoft’s Windows Virtual Desktop service is now generally available

#14

Post by rayiner »

Cyder wrote: post #2

There's still large areas just 35 miles from DC that don't have high speed internet. The cloud is STILL just for people who never leave the range of high speed internet.

There are large areas 35 miles from DC that have no public sewer or water either. (My parents’ house, for example, has neither, but does have fiber.) But what percentage of the population does that account for? Around DC, very little.

In Akamai’s 2017 report, Maryland’s %-age of connections above 10 mbps (easily enough to do Remote Desktop) was 79%, just below South Korea and above Switzerland. Virginia and the district itself were around 75%, the same as Switzerland.

Re: Microsoft’s Windows Virtual Desktop service is now generally available

#15

Post by jki275 »

selectodude wrote: post #4
Cyder wrote: post #2

There's still large areas just 35 miles from DC that don't have high speed internet. The cloud is STILL just for people who never leave the range of high speed internet.

uh, where? The middle of the Chesapeake bay?

The area around DC, outside of the suburbs, is quite rural actually.

Re: Microsoft’s Windows Virtual Desktop service is now generally available

#16

Post by nerdbaggy »

thrower123 wrote: post #13
russellbeattie wrote: post #3

If Stadia and xCloud really do solve the latency issues inherent in client/server computing - and show that it's economical - one could almost imagine Microsoft launching a consumer version of this with a "terminal" that was little more than a screen, keyboard and network connection... Like Sun Microsystems reborn. The whole concept would, of course, enrage certain sections of the populace including most of HN's read…

How do you beat the speed of light? That's ultimately what we're up against here. High-frequency traders lay down special fiber lines between the exchanges to get the absolute fastest possible ping times, at enormous expense[1]. That gets a 13 ms ping time from NYC to Chicago. My experience with a Steam Link, hardwired on a local ethernet makes me skeptical that any of these cloud gaming platforms will really be prac…

A lot of traders are actually switching to wireless links since RF travels faster than light in a fiber. But some fun stuff happens then https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-03/this-heat...

Re: Microsoft’s Windows Virtual Desktop service is now generally available

#17

Post by jm4 »

rb808 wrote: post #7

I have a friend who works at a big Corporation (100k employees) where everyone has a thin dumb client and windows desktop running on a server. It works great, except video stutters if not small sized. Way of the future? Its an efficient way to pool resources, and prevents people physically stealing data.

Been running a setup like that for over 6 years. It’s great. Support is ridiculously easy. Desktop refreshes aren’t bad either and that’s one of the most difficult projects for an IT department to pull off. We’ve done a couple of them now - once to add RAM, disk and CPU and another to change the desktop image. Deployments and big jobs like opening new offices or big moves are simple.

The video is easy to fix with a fast network or Apex PCOIP accelerator cards, although those are being replaced by expensive server-side GPU’s these days. We have some google earth users and a few others with gpu tasks. A couple Apex cards in a couple of the servers took care of that.

The only thing that completely sucks is USB storage devices. They are painfully slow. Most people accept it because they are rarely used in our environment and everything else is faster than any other system they’ve had.

Re: Microsoft’s Windows Virtual Desktop service is now generally available

#18

Post by sidibe »

thrower123 wrote: post #13
russellbeattie wrote: post #3

If Stadia and xCloud really do solve the latency issues inherent in client/server computing - and show that it's economical - one could almost imagine Microsoft launching a consumer version of this with a "terminal" that was little more than a screen, keyboard and network connection... Like Sun Microsystems reborn. The whole concept would, of course, enrage certain sections of the populace including most of HN's read…

How do you beat the speed of light? That's ultimately what we're up against here. High-frequency traders lay down special fiber lines between the exchanges to get the absolute fastest possible ping times, at enormous expense[1]. That gets a 13 ms ping time from NYC to Chicago. My experience with a Steam Link, hardwired on a local ethernet makes me skeptical that any of these cloud gaming platforms will really be prac…

13 ms is not noticeable and almost everyone is much closer to Google or Microsoft machines than NYC is to Chicago. The bigger but more tractable issue are the steps between your machine and your ISP.

Re: Microsoft’s Windows Virtual Desktop service is now generally available

#19

Post by jjeaff »

thrower123 wrote: post #13
russellbeattie wrote: post #3

If Stadia and xCloud really do solve the latency issues inherent in client/server computing - and show that it's economical - one could almost imagine Microsoft launching a consumer version of this with a "terminal" that was little more than a screen, keyboard and network connection... Like Sun Microsystems reborn. The whole concept would, of course, enrage certain sections of the populace including most of HN's read…

How do you beat the speed of light? That's ultimately what we're up against here. High-frequency traders lay down special fiber lines between the exchanges to get the absolute fastest possible ping times, at enormous expense[1]. That gets a 13 ms ping time from NYC to Chicago. My experience with a Steam Link, hardwired on a local ethernet makes me skeptical that any of these cloud gaming platforms will really be prac…

Even pretty hard core gamers seem to think that 40ms or less is good for gaming. So that leaves some leeway to work with I guess.
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