I must be missing something. It's not immediately clear to me, even after reading the article, how this is different from just procuring a Windows OS VM in Azure. Pricing?
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
#42So... this is Terminal Services as a Service?
I wonder how it compares to AWS Systems Manager Session Manager.
Re: Microsoft’s Windows Virtual Desktop service is now generally available
#43I came across FSLogix a few months before MS bought them and have been entirely impressed by how fantastic the product is. If you have ever dealt with roaming profiles and huge amount of junk in C:\Users\username folder, FSLogix is a blessing. In simplest terms, once installed on Windows (physical or VM, doesn’t matter), the entire user folder lives as a single VHD file on a network drive but appears to the local machine as a regular user folder. This means browser temp files do not need to be synced upon log off. In fact there is no syncing. Everything is accessible using just one network file stream. As someone who manages 200 users on Citrix, it is beautiful. Their Office plugin does the same with user’s Office profile, including Outlook. I haven’t played with the integrated FSLogix/MS offering but the pre-MS stuff is nothing short of a relief for sysadmins.
Re: Microsoft’s Windows Virtual Desktop service is now generally available
#44There'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.
umm. not exactly for that audience or people like you and me to be honest. i'd rather gmail at home than office 365...
this is for companies. with enough employees who are building on the microsoft stack and the office suite. god knows we would rather they deal with their updates themselves. and besides, way things are going virtualization is being cheaper than buying hardware...
Re: Microsoft’s Windows Virtual Desktop service is now generally available
#45How does app installation work? ie. If I have a license for some software, can I rent a virtual desktop to run it on?
Re: Microsoft’s Windows Virtual Desktop service is now generally available
#46If 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…
Tried steam link on local eth too with same conclusion, but later realised that was probably cause I had x264 not 265 which apparently makes a massive diff
Re: Microsoft’s Windows Virtual Desktop service is now generally available
#47There'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.
This is for enterprises that typically use Citrix as the modern version of X Windows.
Re: Microsoft’s Windows Virtual Desktop service is now generally available
#48I 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.
Actually spirit of the past, aka timeshare mainframes.
Re: Microsoft’s Windows Virtual Desktop service is now generally available
#49I pretty much live inside Remote Desktop, and the only fault I can find with this is that it starts at 100 users (in the Azure pricing calculator). Having something like this for SoHo (1-5 users) would be a killer app in my neck of the woods.
Re: Microsoft’s Windows Virtual Desktop service is now generally available
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 distr…
And, more to the point, some people not having public water and sewerage systems doesn't stop us selling toilets or taps.
Well that analogy doesn’t hold because you still use toilets and taps in those well and septic areas near DC the author is referring to.