5 ms·

VMWare to Bring Traditional Windows Apps and Desktops to Chromebooks

69 points by DonGateley 13y ago

skrowl 13y ago
This is more like "Citrix / Remote Desktop client on Chromebook" than "Windows on Chromebook"
- DonGateley 13y ago
  My title refers to the user experience, not the infrastructure.
- yen223 13y ago
  That's great, because "Windows on a laptop" isn't exactly a novel idea.
jfasi 13y ago
This is interesting. Where are the public-facing Windows machines? I wonder if there's an opportunity in creating "Windows as a Service?" So many of us live on Mac OS or Linux and only need Windows on those rare occasions when someone sends us a .docx file or when we need to access some horrible web application that only works with Java SE 1.6.36_2 running on IE.
- georgemcbay 13y ago
  "Windows as a Service" is essentially exactly what this is. Despite the hype I've seen in a few places suggesting this is some radical way to run Windows on Chromebooks what it actually is is a Chromebook-hosted client for VMWare's Horizon "DaaS" (desktop as a service) platform.
- ld00d 13y ago
  Since this is an enterprise blog, it appears this is a solution for IT departments where they can host a Windows instance on a VM on their server. The end users can then login via almost dumb terminals.
- daigoba66 13y ago
  http://www.browserstack.com http://www.browserstack.com, while still fairly specialized, gets you part of the way there.
- jbigelow76 13y ago
  >I wonder if there's an opportunity in creating "Windows as a Service?" I think Amazon Workspaces is trying to do something similar to that. http://aws.amazon.com/workspaces/ http://aws.amazon.com/workspaces/
- dublinben 13y ago
  You can do that with Microsoft's Azure. They support Windows virtual machines.
- hershel 13y ago
  You can do it with cloud VM's , but the problem is the startup time for a windows VM. The best i know of is ~400 seconds[1]. On the other hand, desktone(acquired by VMware) claims it can boot in 60 seconds[2], which might work for this use case. [1]http://www.slideshare.net/mingtemp/a-performance-study-on-the-vm-startup-time-in-the-cloud http://www.slideshare.net/mingtemp/a-performance-study-on-th... [2]https://twitter.com/Desktone/status/312990615229050880 https://twitter.com/Desktone/status/312990615229050880
georgemcbay 13y ago
Title ("Windows on Chromebook at last"... will probably be changed by mods since it doesn't match the source post) is somewhat misleading in that this is just a remote desktop client to VMWare Horizon. I'm sure this solution is nice for people that are already invested in the VMWare Horizon infrastructure, but for people with Chromebooks who are already tied to physical Windows machines just using Chrome Remote Desktop (which has been supported on Chromebooks for quite a while) is probably the better solution.
- DonGateley 13y ago
  If they've got one more appropriate I welcome the change. Yes, initially for enterprise, but once the door is open and traveled by experts a bit to wring it out and simplify it it becomes everyone's egress. The fact of an app store app for it (mentioned at the bottom) portends that future.
  - nl 13y ago
    This has been around for a while, and there are plenty of other solutions: Citrix and Ericom both have a similar product. There is also the Google developed RDP client for Chrome[1]. Outside of enterprise (and development) it isn't a very interesting market - the fraction of people who need Windows apps, have a Windows machine and a Chromebook, and are bothered enough by having to physically access their own Windows machine is pretty small. The "remote assistance" market is somewhat different, but that is served by quite a lot of applications. [1] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-remote-desktop/gbchcmhmhahfdphkhkmpfmihenigjmpp?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-remote-desk...
- gigl 13y ago
  It's just a refresh of VMWare Blast. Citrix has had this for ~a year as well with StoreFront + Receiver for HTML5 for access to datacenter-hosted virtual desktops.
DonGateley 13y ago
While initially aimed at enterprise the fact that there will be a fairly simple app for this in the app store could radically change Microsoft's role in the marketplace. My shelved Chromebooks for Seniors project is now off the shelf. I came to realize that they would not appeal to those who already have Windows computer experience, by far the largest share of those with experience. That group is rapidly becoming the majority of seniors. Having a unified hardware platform that can be shared among the complete set of users totally changes the game. This might be the final correction to the deviant path taken away from thin clients with the advent of the PC.
awestroke 13y ago
I hope not
frakkingcylons 13y ago
So this DaaS is supposed to be accessed through an HTML5 client. I wonder if this will nudge Amazon into developing a web client (maybe coinciding with the end of the limited preview) as well so their similar DaaS product (WorkSpaces)[1] can compete with VMWare for the Chromebook market. At the moment, WorkSpaces supports Mac, Windows, iPad, Android, and Kindle Fire [2]. [1]: http://aws.amazon.com/workspaces/ http://aws.amazon.com/workspaces/ [2]: http://aws.amazon.com/workspaces/details/#desktop-and-mobile-clients http://aws.amazon.com/workspaces/details/#desktop-and-mobile...
- noname123 13y ago
  Yes, I hope Amazon come up with a good case for this as AWS is really designed for compute and web servers. So I don't need all of the server features like advanced NIO or support for clustered SQL servers. Just want a simple VM that I can dial down or up RAM and processing power if I want to do more complicated stuff. Awesome if they can come up with MacOS VM for iOS development; or even a optimized VM for Android development.
  - _delirium 13y ago
    > Awesome if they can come up with MacOS VM for iOS development Unless Amazon can cut a special licensing deal with Apple, for now the only legal way to run OSX VMs is on top of OSX itself on Apple hardware. Since Apple discontinued the rackmount Xserve line in 2010, that would require a datacenter full of Mac Pro towers on shelves or something, which sounds unlikely to be appealing to Amazon.
- gigl 13y ago
  Amazon WorkSpaces and VMWare Horizon both use the same protocol (Teradici PCoIP), so it's likely Amazon will be able to replicate the VMWare Blast product shortly.
rdtsc 13y ago
> Desktop as a Service (DaaS) Someone had to be laughing when they typed that. At this point *aaS is just overused that I don't know how anyone typing another instance of it could be serious.
- reidrac 13y ago
  It used to be VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure), and I remember a lot of hype around 2008; I guess the *aaS is easier to understand because it sounds more familiar. But you're right. I remember joking with a taxi driver about the abuse of buzzwords and we agreed he was in the "CaaS" business (car as a service).
- sirkneeland 13y ago
  If you add some Seriousness as a Service...
- hangonhn 13y ago
  And then they can get a boat to sell these things like they did for Google Glass and it'll be called "DaaS Boat"...
- Pirate-of-SV 13y ago
  Laughing their *aaS off.
ForHackernews 13y ago
This seems like some wonky hack where you're running a Windows VM on a remote server and sending the GUI back to the Chromebook. Is there any real reason you couldn't just install Windows on Chromebook hardware? Do they lock the bootloader?
- paulfurtado 13y ago
  While I'm guessing there are many Chromebooks which can run Windows, note that many others have ARM CPU's.
  - ForHackernews 13y ago
    They could run Windows RT /s
- georgemcbay 13y ago
  They do a sorta softlock on the bootloader to maintain OS consistency and security, but you can override it by putting the machine into "developer mode". Getting Windows up natively on Chromebooks is possibly possible depending upon the machine. ARM based Chromebooks are obviously a non-starter for running x86/x64 Windows. For Intel systems it can be made to work using coreboot firmware to boot into Windows but the install process tends to be fairly involved and non-user-friendly and device specific, sort of like building a hackintosh.
- DonGateley 13y ago
  Probably not but that would alter the Chromebook. Their solution requires no modification and yet supposedly gives a Windows user experience for those to whom that's good enough. Depending on the DaaS capability WRT the apps I use that could easily be me going forward. Device sharing is also facilitated by the DaaS approach. Any user can log on to any device at any time and see an uninterrupted work flow. For emerging societies and especially their students this can be a huge benefit. There are many environments where sharing inexpensive hardware without penalty can be a sea change. The lack of Windows is a penalty whether we like that or not. :-)
- catern 13y ago
noname123 13y ago
I already use this via AWS and rooted ChromeOS, Crouton and the rdesktop ARM client. Very excited about Amazon Workspace!
d0 13y ago
I'm not sure this will work wonderfully. As someone who tried to spend a big chunk of time sitting at a MacBook and using Windows via RDP, it's a royal PITA as the keyboard differences are pretty big and the mappings are unintuitive. The ChromeBook keyboards are pretty much a rip off of Mac keyboard so you're getting into interesting territory of no F-keys and odd delete behaviour for example. It's not going to be pleasant. Windows can be driven very effectively and easily by keyboard only (unlike MacOS and ChromeOS) and this advantage is lost so power users at least and a lot of office workers accustomed to using their devices via keyboard are going to be shot. I've had to go back to a PC for RDP sessions to be honest as it's the only thing that's bearable.
Aoyagi 13y ago
"traditional" "apps"

69 points by DonGateley 13y ago

skrowl 13y ago

This is more like "Citrix / Remote Desktop client on Chromebook" than "Windows on Chromebook"

DonGateley 13y ago
My title refers to the user experience, not the infrastructure.
yen223 13y ago
That's great, because "Windows on a laptop" isn't exactly a novel idea.

jfasi 13y ago

This is interesting. Where are the public-facing Windows machines? I wonder if there's an opportunity in creating "Windows as a Service?" So many of us live on Mac OS or Linux and only need Windows on those rare occasions when someone sends us a .docx file or when we need to access some horrible web application that only works with Java SE 1.6.36_2 running on IE.

georgemcbay 13y ago
"Windows as a Service" is essentially exactly what this is. Despite the hype I've seen in a few places suggesting this is some radical way to run Windows on Chromebooks what it actually is is a Chromebook-hosted client for VMWare's Horizon "DaaS" (desktop as a service) platform.
ld00d 13y ago
Since this is an enterprise blog, it appears this is a solution for IT departments where they can host a Windows instance on a VM on their server. The end users can then login via almost dumb terminals.
daigoba66 13y ago
http://www.browserstack.com http://www.browserstack.com, while still fairly specialized, gets you part of the way there.
jbigelow76 13y ago
>I wonder if there's an opportunity in creating "Windows as a Service?" I think Amazon Workspaces is trying to do something similar to that. http://aws.amazon.com/workspaces/ http://aws.amazon.com/workspaces/
dublinben 13y ago
You can do that with Microsoft's Azure. They support Windows virtual machines.
hershel 13y ago
You can do it with cloud VM's , but the problem is the startup time for a windows VM. The best i know of is ~400 seconds[1]. On the other hand, desktone(acquired by VMware) claims it can boot in 60 seconds[2], which might work for this use case. [1]http://www.slideshare.net/mingtemp/a-performance-study-on-the-vm-startup-time-in-the-cloud http://www.slideshare.net/mingtemp/a-performance-study-on-th... [2]https://twitter.com/Desktone/status/312990615229050880 https://twitter.com/Desktone/status/312990615229050880

georgemcbay 13y ago

Title ("Windows on Chromebook at last"... will probably be changed by mods since it doesn't match the source post) is somewhat misleading in that this is just a remote desktop client to VMWare Horizon. I'm sure this solution is nice for people that are already invested in the VMWare Horizon infrastructure, but for people with Chromebooks who are already tied to physical Windows machines just using Chrome Remote Desktop (which has been supported on Chromebooks for quite a while) is probably the better solution.

DonGateley 13y ago
If they've got one more appropriate I welcome the change. Yes, initially for enterprise, but once the door is open and traveled by experts a bit to wring it out and simplify it it becomes everyone's egress. The fact of an app store app for it (mentioned at the bottom) portends that future.
- nl 13y ago
  This has been around for a while, and there are plenty of other solutions: Citrix and Ericom both have a similar product. There is also the Google developed RDP client for Chrome[1]. Outside of enterprise (and development) it isn't a very interesting market - the fraction of people who need Windows apps, have a Windows machine and a Chromebook, and are bothered enough by having to physically access their own Windows machine is pretty small. The "remote assistance" market is somewhat different, but that is served by quite a lot of applications. [1] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-remote-desktop/gbchcmhmhahfdphkhkmpfmihenigjmpp?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-remote-desk...
gigl 13y ago
It's just a refresh of VMWare Blast. Citrix has had this for ~a year as well with StoreFront + Receiver for HTML5 for access to datacenter-hosted virtual desktops.

DonGateley 13y ago

While initially aimed at enterprise the fact that there will be a fairly simple app for this in the app store could radically change Microsoft's role in the marketplace. My shelved Chromebooks for Seniors project is now off the shelf. I came to realize that they would not appeal to those who already have Windows computer experience, by far the largest share of those with experience. That group is rapidly becoming the majority of seniors. Having a unified hardware platform that can be shared among the complete set of users totally changes the game. This might be the final correction to the deviant path taken away from thin clients with the advent of the PC.

awestroke 13y ago

I hope not

frakkingcylons 13y ago

So this DaaS is supposed to be accessed through an HTML5 client. I wonder if this will nudge Amazon into developing a web client (maybe coinciding with the end of the limited preview) as well so their similar DaaS product (WorkSpaces)[1] can compete with VMWare for the Chromebook market. At the moment, WorkSpaces supports Mac, Windows, iPad, Android, and Kindle Fire [2]. [1]: http://aws.amazon.com/workspaces/ http://aws.amazon.com/workspaces/ [2]: http://aws.amazon.com/workspaces/details/#desktop-and-mobile-clients http://aws.amazon.com/workspaces/details/#desktop-and-mobile...

noname123 13y ago
Yes, I hope Amazon come up with a good case for this as AWS is really designed for compute and web servers. So I don't need all of the server features like advanced NIO or support for clustered SQL servers. Just want a simple VM that I can dial down or up RAM and processing power if I want to do more complicated stuff. Awesome if they can come up with MacOS VM for iOS development; or even a optimized VM for Android development.
- _delirium 13y ago
  > Awesome if they can come up with MacOS VM for iOS development Unless Amazon can cut a special licensing deal with Apple, for now the only legal way to run OSX VMs is on top of OSX itself on Apple hardware. Since Apple discontinued the rackmount Xserve line in 2010, that would require a datacenter full of Mac Pro towers on shelves or something, which sounds unlikely to be appealing to Amazon.
gigl 13y ago
Amazon WorkSpaces and VMWare Horizon both use the same protocol (Teradici PCoIP), so it's likely Amazon will be able to replicate the VMWare Blast product shortly.

rdtsc 13y ago

> Desktop as a Service (DaaS) Someone had to be laughing when they typed that. At this point *aaS is just overused that I don't know how anyone typing another instance of it could be serious.

reidrac 13y ago
It used to be VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure), and I remember a lot of hype around 2008; I guess the *aaS is easier to understand because it sounds more familiar. But you're right. I remember joking with a taxi driver about the abuse of buzzwords and we agreed he was in the "CaaS" business (car as a service).
sirkneeland 13y ago
If you add some Seriousness as a Service...
hangonhn 13y ago
And then they can get a boat to sell these things like they did for Google Glass and it'll be called "DaaS Boat"...
Pirate-of-SV 13y ago
Laughing their *aaS off.

ForHackernews 13y ago

This seems like some wonky hack where you're running a Windows VM on a remote server and sending the GUI back to the Chromebook. Is there any real reason you couldn't just install Windows on Chromebook hardware? Do they lock the bootloader?

paulfurtado 13y ago
While I'm guessing there are many Chromebooks which can run Windows, note that many others have ARM CPU's.
- ForHackernews 13y ago
  They could run Windows RT /s
georgemcbay 13y ago
They do a sorta softlock on the bootloader to maintain OS consistency and security, but you can override it by putting the machine into "developer mode". Getting Windows up natively on Chromebooks is possibly possible depending upon the machine. ARM based Chromebooks are obviously a non-starter for running x86/x64 Windows. For Intel systems it can be made to work using coreboot firmware to boot into Windows but the install process tends to be fairly involved and non-user-friendly and device specific, sort of like building a hackintosh.
DonGateley 13y ago
Probably not but that would alter the Chromebook. Their solution requires no modification and yet supposedly gives a Windows user experience for those to whom that's good enough. Depending on the DaaS capability WRT the apps I use that could easily be me going forward. Device sharing is also facilitated by the DaaS approach. Any user can log on to any device at any time and see an uninterrupted work flow. For emerging societies and especially their students this can be a huge benefit. There are many environments where sharing inexpensive hardware without penalty can be a sea change. The lack of Windows is a penalty whether we like that or not. :-)
catern 13y ago

noname123 13y ago

I already use this via AWS and rooted ChromeOS, Crouton and the rdesktop ARM client. Very excited about Amazon Workspace!

d0 13y ago

I'm not sure this will work wonderfully. As someone who tried to spend a big chunk of time sitting at a MacBook and using Windows via RDP, it's a royal PITA as the keyboard differences are pretty big and the mappings are unintuitive. The ChromeBook keyboards are pretty much a rip off of Mac keyboard so you're getting into interesting territory of no F-keys and odd delete behaviour for example. It's not going to be pleasant. Windows can be driven very effectively and easily by keyboard only (unlike MacOS and ChromeOS) and this advantage is lost so power users at least and a lot of office workers accustomed to using their devices via keyboard are going to be shot. I've had to go back to a PC for RDP sessions to be honest as it's the only thing that's bearable.

Aoyagi 13y ago

"traditional" "apps"