[Thinlinc-technical] More users / Less servers

Wed Aug 12 20:56:32 CEST 2009

Again, please see my comments below...

> > Not really. Microsoft has extended Windows XP support 
> lifecycle until 2014.
> > See: http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?LN=en-gb&C2=1173
> 
> Yes, security updates are available, but for everything else, 
> you need an extended support agreement, and the ability to 
> purchase/sign such an agreement went away on 14 July 2009.
> 
Really? Humm, I´ll try to check that directly with Microsoft, but I´m pretty
sure that the normal support lifecycle was extended due to the market
unacceptance of Windows Vista. Does anyone know something about? Anyway,
this is not the focus here... 

> > OK, but what can I do with ThinLinc without a Linux Desktop System? 
> > Being just a gateway to WTS is not so attractive...
> 
> I disagree, ThinLinc works very well as a frontend to Windows 
> systems. An overview is provided on 
>
http://www.cendio.com/products/thinlinc/solutions/technology/frontwts.xhtml
> 
I know those points very well, and I didn´t say that ThinLinc "does not work
well" on this scenario, what I just said was "it is not so attractive". For
example, the bi-directional audio support feature provided by ThinLinc is
useless on cases that doesn´t even need sound (I could say 90% or more by
here), and is just useful on very specific scenarios. 

Often during our pre-sales visits, I always try to point out those improved
ThinLinc features when serving as a front to WTS, but its becoming harder to
convince the customer. For example, here is pretty common to see several WTS
servers running over a VMWARE ESX infrastructure (actually vSphere), the
poor WTS load-balance algorithm is bypassed by the on-demand resource
alocation included in VMWARE. We can say the same for the server´s
availability, since using WTS session directory feature deals very smoothly
with that.

Another interesting point is: Windows TS does not have such good cryptograpy
as ThinLinc, but it is just useful over Internet connection, what on the
other hand leads us to the ThinLinc high bandwidth consumption (remember?
Fast and reliable Internet links here are pretty expensive...)

In short, I surely agree that ThinLinc adds nice features to WTS, but it is
more visible on some specific scenarios, which is not so common here. I
really would like to know if the rest of the world live the same situation
or just here in Brazil we have this "sinple desktop" profile...

> I have no idea of how much memory MS Office vs OpenOffice 
> consumes, I can't even guess which consumes the most.
> 
This is quite interesting, as based on some quick banckmarks I could realize
that it depends on the platform. Basically, on Linux, OpenOffice programs
consumed much more memory than the same one on Windows platform, and
equivalent Office 2007 programs consumed around 10% less memory, but used
considerably more shared memory (which is quite good on shared
environments....). Of course, the numbers depends on a lot of factors (like
Java, platform, etc), and should not be taken as default basis. I´ve plans
to make more precise benchmarks soon.

> A plain Windows Terminal Server solution is very limited. This is why 
> there are so many add-on products, ThinLinc being one of 
> them. But if you can live with the limitations (ie work around the 
> shortcomings somehow, accept the Windows lock-in etc), then yes, a plain 
> WTS is more affordable for that case.
> 
I don´t see so many limitations on WTS (and so the market here) for the
basic desktop publishing, just the opposite. For example, is pretty simple
to apply desktop lockins using Group Policies on a Active Directory
environment, but is pretty hard (and shortcoming) on Linux. OK, I know this
is not a ThinLinc limitation, but we should remember that what matter is the
whole solution, as we can´t sell ThinLinc without Linux desktops on most
part of the market.

BTW, lest keep focus on the point here: What I´m trying to do is provide a
lightweight desktop environment to serve as front-end for published
application access over ThinLinc, and that´s why I´m putting some efforts to
make it happen. The idea here is not to claim about any kind of ThinLinc
limitations (if applicable), but to find a way to provide a complete,
affordable and reliable solution to the market, which invariably includes
the desktop environment.

Kind Regards.

--
Marcos S. Trazzini
ThinLinc Technical Manager
Avancera Brazil IT Services Ltda
Al Caiapós, 465 - Alphaville
Barueri - SP - Brazil
Cel +55 (11) 9941-0773
Tel +55 (11) 3522-8570
marcos.trazzini at avancera.com.br
http://www.avancera.com.br/

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