My company did this to us. I'm thinking of quitting.
Cloud desktops aren't as good as you'd think
141–150 of 479 posts
Re: Cloud desktops aren't as good as you'd think
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
>What we need is not [...] cloud storage. We need [...] a decent distributed filesystem, Distributed files to where exactly? You need to be more concrete about the remote location of non-local data that normal people can use. Ok, so you want "distributed filesystem" to not mean "cloud storage" ... So is it p2p? Something else? In other words, we want Windows, macOS, Linux, iPhone, Android, etc operating systems... to…
> Distributed files to where exactly? My desktop computer, my laptop computer, my tablet computer, my pocket computer. Whether that’s cloud or p2p doesn’t matter to me, the user. I should be able to start working on a spreadsheet or presentation on one and, without the ceremony of “save to a shared location, close the app, switch devices, open the app … now where’s that file again?” switch to another and continue edi…
Ray Ozzie, is that you?!
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5661920
https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2008/05/01/architecture-astro...
Come back to us, Microsoft Briefcase!
Re: Cloud desktops aren't as good as you'd think
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
>What we need is not [...] cloud storage. We need [...] a decent distributed filesystem, Distributed files to where exactly? You need to be more concrete about the remote location of non-local data that normal people can use. Ok, so you want "distributed filesystem" to not mean "cloud storage" ... So is it p2p? Something else? In other words, we want Windows, macOS, Linux, iPhone, Android, etc operating systems... to…
To where exactly: my devices. And if I don't want to buy my own devices, then to a cloud service that offers opaque storage of binary blobs with an API that my filesystem can abstract for me. So the topology is a mesh network of my devices, and perhaps optionally a few defined remote endpoints that the opaque blob storage service provides me, and that I enter as part of the config of my filesystem.
That sounds like Cloud Storage to me (Dropbox, Google Drive Backup/Restore/Sync/whatever it's called this year).
Re: Cloud desktops aren't as good as you'd think
#144Have generally been skeptical of 'cloud desktop' but... I had a friend who got in to sales for a cloud desktop provider about 6-7 years ago. There was only one real strong use case and she sold to that niche. Some specific cad/modeling/rendering vertical had software they used, and it was a CPU bear. Running that 'remotely' in the cloud was much faster than anything they could have locally. Managing all the licensing and security/perms there was an added benefit, but she was also mostly selling to smaller firms that didn't have full time staff to handle that.
For the market she was in, at the time, there was a moderately clear win. I watched a pitch, and the speed diff was real. The productivity gains in many folks saving an hour or two in rendering time was easily worth the... I can't remember - $200/month/seat maybe? Outside of those types of use cases, the benefits were harder to justify. And... in 2020+... unsure if local desktop CPU caught up enough that the benefits were lower.
Re: Cloud desktops aren't as good as you'd think
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
What development are you doing where there's a notable difference between an M1 Mac and a "workstation class machine?" Is it just running a bunch of VMs? I don't doubt the tasks exist but it's got to be a list that's been dwindling for the last few years.
Not GP, but: Building Firefox on a macbook air or pro M1: half an hour. Fastest M1 max is around 15 minutes. Building Firefox on my Threadripper workstation: 5 minutes.
This is also my experience. Large Rust/C/C++ code bases will easily compile 3-4x as quickly with a fast workstation as with a top end laptop. I blame thermal design and power limits
Re: Cloud desktops aren't as good as you'd think
#146Disclamer: I'm part of the IsardVDI project (https://gitlab.com/isard/isardvdi)
With RDP, in our experience, the latency issue is nonexistent. We've even have successfully run workstations editing 4k video with 0 issues. Yes, for those extreme cases you need a GPU (and the only option is NVIDIA Grid, which are really expensive cards with licensing on top of that), but for the most part, if the hypervisor has a good CPU, it's more than enough, we have clients that even use RDP through the browser.
You don't even need to have a really good internet connection. Also, SPICE is really good too, with really good desktop integration
Re: Cloud desktops aren't as good as you'd think
#147I don't get the use case. Why would you even consider using a cloud desktop? Even a very low-spec laptop is going to run a simple graphical desktop environment like Xfce just fine. Watching a youtube video, browsing the web and even video conferencing can be handled with any new-ish laptop. And in reality, you still want a reliable laptop with decent keyboard, long battery life, good display and so on. So you won't e…
Contractors, no way to take code out premises (assuming proper security settings on the VMs), and easy to get new instances instead of waiting for crap Dell and HP dual core laptops, with 8GB and 256GB HDD.
Re: Cloud desktops aren't as good as you'd think
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
In my whole career i only had one company that provided windows machines and as expected it was a horrible place to work at. Current client wants to do the same. Coincidentally the place is becoming less desirable to work with.
Outside of silicon valley, the business world runs on Windows, no matter how cheap or expensive the machines are. Being inflexible can certainly be a red flag though.
My clients are all based in the uk and nearly all run on macos, except those at the bottom.
Re: Cloud desktops aren't as good as you'd think
#149Perhaps others have had better experience, but whenever I've used a remote GUI VM (e.g. through the Guacamole web browser interface), the latency is painfully noticeable when typing. So much so that I've usually dropped down to a local terminal connecting to the vm by ssh and doing everything in Emacs (or Vim, if that's how you're bent), or having JetBrains edit stuff remotely. But then you're back to needing a decent workstation.
Re: Cloud desktops aren't as good as you'd think
#150Have generally been skeptical of 'cloud desktop' but... I had a friend who got in to sales for a cloud desktop provider about 6-7 years ago. There was only one real strong use case and she sold to that niche. Some specific cad/modeling/rendering vertical had software they used, and it was a CPU bear. Running that 'remotely' in the cloud was much faster than anything they could have locally. Managing all the licensing…
This sounds like a good use case!
I'm considering cloud desktop at work right now for something similarish. We have a fat pile of data and want to let people use the data. If we give them VMs on the same network as the data (with super high bandwidth and CPU amd GPU), they can manipulate the data quickly.