4 ms·

I'm sorry if this sounds completely ridiculous to some people, but what do people use RDP/Windows server for in 2021? Given that ASP/Dotnet is portable to linux

I'm sorry if this sounds completely ridiculous to some people, but what do people use RDP/Windows server for in 2021? Given that ASP/Dotnet is portable to linux, what are people building that isn't better deployed to linux? It can't just be the legacy use-case, can it?

cprecioso 5y ago
I use Windows VMs on Google Cloud to install and play games in the cloud - my Mac can’t play any
- crakenzak 5y ago
  hows the performance/input lag on that? How much are you paying & is it worth?
  - cprecioso 5y ago
    It really depends on how far away from the data center you are. I used to live close to Amsterdam and that felt basically local, even with a not-amazing internet connection. Right now I live in the Valencia (Spain), with a local and not very well paired ISP. There is lag, but it is just about acceptable for platformers and action/adventure games. I wouldn't recommend it for shooters. The cost ended up being around 1€/hr when the instance was on, and 0.06€/day for the storage. I am sure this could be optimized (e.g. use snapshots and spot instance) - but I just couldn't be bothered to. For me it is worth it.
- yoz-y 5y ago
  This is a very novel use case to me. Could you elaborate why use this solution instead of a local VM, boot camp, or something like Stadia? Seems that it would work quite well for turn based games (including auto save)
  - cprecioso 5y ago
    I don't use a local VM or bootcamp because I just don't have a powerful enough computer to run AAA games from the last 5 years or so - even earlier if the game is badly optimized. Now with an M1 they're not even compatible. Stadia, GeForce NOW, Xbox Game Streaming and PlayStation Now: I've tried them all, and GeForce NOW specifically is very good. But, they only allow me to play a subset of my large pre-existing game library, and/or make me buy games again, which I'm not interested in. Stadia is specially bad at this, having to purchase on a game-by-game basis, not being compatible with any existing ecosystem (Steam, PS, Xbox have cloud saves and friend lists), and then trusting Google to run my game forever on their servers after paying a one-time cost.
- akkawwakka 5y ago
  Parsec is outstanding for this use case, it’s basically a roll-your-own Stadia. Dunno what its future will be now that it was acquired by Unity
  - cprecioso 5y ago
    Yep, usually use Parsec, or Moonlight + ZeroTier for this.
- password4321 5y ago
  Nvidia GeForce Now offers this for free, 1 hour at a time. It barely worked in their web client but the desktop client worked pretty well.
  - cprecioso 5y ago
    For me GeForce NOW is the best service, but it really sucks that I’m not allowed to play my whole Steam library. That’s a disqualified for me
creshal 5y ago
We use remote scripted Indesign instances for creating catalogues, which needs Windows to run, and RDP for debugging. I'd love to hear about alternative solutions that don't require Windows, and still spit out colour-accurate CMYK indesign files; the printing shops won't accept anything else.
- PLG88 5y ago
  Take a look at open source Ziti, it will work on any system, app or cloud - https://ziti.dev/ https://ziti.dev/ or https://github.com/openziti https://github.com/openziti
  - creshal 5y ago
    Not sure if this is link spam or if you just didn't understand my question.
    - PLG88 5y ago
      I understood you would like an "alternative solution" to dozero trust RDP and SSH "that don't require Windows"
      - jsperx 5y ago
        I believe (s)he meant an alternative to the InDesign rendering workflow that runs on Windows.
        creshal 5y ago
        Yes.
- cprecioso 5y ago
  The most frustrating, and most fun moments I've had hacking on a computer has been scripting InDesign, so props for that! Most printing shops I've had to treat with will also accept PDFs, is that the case? Because then, there's a case to be made for converting your templates to HTML (gives you access to a huge amount of tooling) and printing them to a PDF through a headless browser instance (like pptr.dev). That has worked for me in the past, and is accessible and good quality (though I did not need accurate CMYK, so YMMV).
franga2000 5y ago
RDP is pretty easy to explain: if you need a GUI, RDP is infinitely smoother than VNC or anything else the Linux ecosystem has to offer. I even use it on Linux for things like livestreaming (OBS running in a minimal GUI like openbox). The are many similar workloads that are less "servers" and more "cloud workstations" that use GUI apps. As for Windows in general, 90% of the Windows servers I see fall into one of the 2 categories: 1) they run some Windows-only software or 2) the sysadmins at the company know Windows, so that's what they use. If your company relies on something from 1), you're very likely also going to fall into 2). Specific example: a company wanted to allow any employee to log in from any computer and be ablr to get work done. A VM terminal server was too heavy for their network and server budget and they already had decently powerful PCs, so they went with AD and that roaming accouts thing. They had to hire a Windows server sysadmin to manage it. When they decided they also needed a good NAS, web server and backup system, they already had a Windows sysadmin on staff and the licences+over-spec required to run in on Win were still cheaper than hiring another sysadmin.
- OrvalWintermute 5y ago
  > RDP is pretty easy to explain: if you need a GUI, RDP is infinitely smoother than VNC or anything else the Linux ecosystem has to offer. The last time I was assessing Windows remote * for performance, VNC* implementations with a mirror driver provided far better performance than vanilla RDP.
  - dekhn 5y ago
    I have the complete opposite experience, but I only used RealVNC (not sure what mirror driver is). My experience is that the Windows RDP client and RDP server on any platfrom is >>> VNC in every way.
- guerby 5y ago
  meshcentral is pretty nice open source software for remote access multi platform: https://github.com/Ylianst/MeshCentral https://github.com/Ylianst/MeshCentral It has a free instance here https://meshcentral.com/info/ https://meshcentral.com/info/
gogopuppygogo 5y ago
Remote browser isolation for companies that need Microsoft.
catmanjan 5y ago
The answer is one (or most likely all of) these: active directory, sharepoint, exchange
pjmlp 5y ago
.NET Core might be portable, however it is a tiny subset of what .NET Framework is capable of. Additionally lots of enterprise shops, despite what HN crowd thinks, are mostly on Microsoft stacks, so that .NET application is going to connect to other APIs and stuff not available on GNU/Linux. Then, many companies use VMs as desktops for contractors, you are just not allowed to plug anything on their network, so you are using Visual Studio via RDP/Citrix. As an example, in life sciences most of the laboratory hardware only has APIs available via COM/.NET Framework.
e12e 5y ago
Custom Microsoft Dynamics install?
OrvalWintermute 5y ago
In a large scale enterprise environment, say 100k+ seats with a mix of MS Office, scientific/engineering use-cases, Windows, Linux & OSX, Windows is still the way to go for the forest, tying it in with JAMF and Linux integrations. Less the legacy use-case than how do we integrate everything with everything.
dekhn 5y ago
I run many GUI apps remotely. I don't waste time porting stuff that works best on Windows to Linux (I have two machines). Not all use cases are development.

cprecioso 5y ago

I use Windows VMs on Google Cloud to install and play games in the cloud - my Mac can’t play any

crakenzak 5y ago
hows the performance/input lag on that? How much are you paying & is it worth?
- cprecioso 5y ago
  It really depends on how far away from the data center you are. I used to live close to Amsterdam and that felt basically local, even with a not-amazing internet connection. Right now I live in the Valencia (Spain), with a local and not very well paired ISP. There is lag, but it is just about acceptable for platformers and action/adventure games. I wouldn't recommend it for shooters. The cost ended up being around 1€/hr when the instance was on, and 0.06€/day for the storage. I am sure this could be optimized (e.g. use snapshots and spot instance) - but I just couldn't be bothered to. For me it is worth it.
yoz-y 5y ago
This is a very novel use case to me. Could you elaborate why use this solution instead of a local VM, boot camp, or something like Stadia? Seems that it would work quite well for turn based games (including auto save)
- cprecioso 5y ago
  I don't use a local VM or bootcamp because I just don't have a powerful enough computer to run AAA games from the last 5 years or so - even earlier if the game is badly optimized. Now with an M1 they're not even compatible. Stadia, GeForce NOW, Xbox Game Streaming and PlayStation Now: I've tried them all, and GeForce NOW specifically is very good. But, they only allow me to play a subset of my large pre-existing game library, and/or make me buy games again, which I'm not interested in. Stadia is specially bad at this, having to purchase on a game-by-game basis, not being compatible with any existing ecosystem (Steam, PS, Xbox have cloud saves and friend lists), and then trusting Google to run my game forever on their servers after paying a one-time cost.
akkawwakka 5y ago
Parsec is outstanding for this use case, it’s basically a roll-your-own Stadia. Dunno what its future will be now that it was acquired by Unity
- cprecioso 5y ago
  Yep, usually use Parsec, or Moonlight + ZeroTier for this.
password4321 5y ago
Nvidia GeForce Now offers this for free, 1 hour at a time. It barely worked in their web client but the desktop client worked pretty well.
- cprecioso 5y ago
  For me GeForce NOW is the best service, but it really sucks that I’m not allowed to play my whole Steam library. That’s a disqualified for me

creshal 5y ago

We use remote scripted Indesign instances for creating catalogues, which needs Windows to run, and RDP for debugging. I'd love to hear about alternative solutions that don't require Windows, and still spit out colour-accurate CMYK indesign files; the printing shops won't accept anything else.

PLG88 5y ago
Take a look at open source Ziti, it will work on any system, app or cloud - https://ziti.dev/ https://ziti.dev/ or https://github.com/openziti https://github.com/openziti
- creshal 5y ago
  Not sure if this is link spam or if you just didn't understand my question.
  - PLG88 5y ago
    I understood you would like an "alternative solution" to dozero trust RDP and SSH "that don't require Windows"
    - jsperx 5y ago
      I believe (s)he meant an alternative to the InDesign rendering workflow that runs on Windows.
      - creshal 5y ago
        Yes.
cprecioso 5y ago
The most frustrating, and most fun moments I've had hacking on a computer has been scripting InDesign, so props for that! Most printing shops I've had to treat with will also accept PDFs, is that the case? Because then, there's a case to be made for converting your templates to HTML (gives you access to a huge amount of tooling) and printing them to a PDF through a headless browser instance (like pptr.dev). That has worked for me in the past, and is accessible and good quality (though I did not need accurate CMYK, so YMMV).

franga2000 5y ago

RDP is pretty easy to explain: if you need a GUI, RDP is infinitely smoother than VNC or anything else the Linux ecosystem has to offer. I even use it on Linux for things like livestreaming (OBS running in a minimal GUI like openbox). The are many similar workloads that are less "servers" and more "cloud workstations" that use GUI apps. As for Windows in general, 90% of the Windows servers I see fall into one of the 2 categories: 1) they run some Windows-only software or 2) the sysadmins at the company know Windows, so that's what they use. If your company relies on something from 1), you're very likely also going to fall into 2). Specific example: a company wanted to allow any employee to log in from any computer and be ablr to get work done. A VM terminal server was too heavy for their network and server budget and they already had decently powerful PCs, so they went with AD and that roaming accouts thing. They had to hire a Windows server sysadmin to manage it. When they decided they also needed a good NAS, web server and backup system, they already had a Windows sysadmin on staff and the licences+over-spec required to run in on Win were still cheaper than hiring another sysadmin.

OrvalWintermute 5y ago
> RDP is pretty easy to explain: if you need a GUI, RDP is infinitely smoother than VNC or anything else the Linux ecosystem has to offer. The last time I was assessing Windows remote * for performance, VNC* implementations with a mirror driver provided far better performance than vanilla RDP.
- dekhn 5y ago
  I have the complete opposite experience, but I only used RealVNC (not sure what mirror driver is). My experience is that the Windows RDP client and RDP server on any platfrom is >>> VNC in every way.
guerby 5y ago
meshcentral is pretty nice open source software for remote access multi platform: https://github.com/Ylianst/MeshCentral https://github.com/Ylianst/MeshCentral It has a free instance here https://meshcentral.com/info/ https://meshcentral.com/info/

gogopuppygogo 5y ago

Remote browser isolation for companies that need Microsoft.

catmanjan 5y ago

The answer is one (or most likely all of) these: active directory, sharepoint, exchange

pjmlp 5y ago

.NET Core might be portable, however it is a tiny subset of what .NET Framework is capable of. Additionally lots of enterprise shops, despite what HN crowd thinks, are mostly on Microsoft stacks, so that .NET application is going to connect to other APIs and stuff not available on GNU/Linux. Then, many companies use VMs as desktops for contractors, you are just not allowed to plug anything on their network, so you are using Visual Studio via RDP/Citrix. As an example, in life sciences most of the laboratory hardware only has APIs available via COM/.NET Framework.

e12e 5y ago

Custom Microsoft Dynamics install?

OrvalWintermute 5y ago

In a large scale enterprise environment, say 100k+ seats with a mix of MS Office, scientific/engineering use-cases, Windows, Linux & OSX, Windows is still the way to go for the forest, tying it in with JAMF and Linux integrations. Less the legacy use-case than how do we integrate everything with everything.

dekhn 5y ago

I run many GUI apps remotely. I don't waste time porting stuff that works best on Windows to Linux (I have two machines). Not all use cases are development.