[Thinlinc-technical] client for phones and tablets
Peter Astrand
astrand at cendio.se
Fri Nov 2 12:45:17 CET 2012
Hi. Version 4.0.0 does not include a HTML5 client, but we hope we are able
to deliver such a client in a relatively near future. In general, there
are many different problems on phones and tablets that needs to be
considered:
First of all, with thin client products, you are typically running
"normal" applications on the server side, applications which are not
designed for phones and tablets. They are designed for large screens. The
screen area of a typical desktop screen is typically more than 20 times
larger than a smart phone (with 17" vs 3.5"). This means that even though
the resolution is OK, many GUI elements will be too small to read. Normal
applications are designed for user input via a physical keyboard and
mouse, which you don't have on phones and tablets. "Apps", on the other
hand, depend on touch screen gestures such as sliding and pinching, which
the remote applications will not understand.
This means that regardless of which thin client / remote desktop product
you are using, the usability with normal applications on devices like
these is poor. It can work in some special cases, for example with
advanced/forgiving users, or if you have the chance of re-designing the
server side application, so that it is better suited for the target
devices.
When it comes to the technology, the choice is between native "Apps" and a
HTML5 solution. There are pros and cons with both solutions. An App can
probably provide better functionality in the long run, but there are
several problems with Apps:
* We would need to develop different Apps for different platforms: It is
in practice impossible to create a cross platform App that works good on
both iOS (iPhone/iPad) and Android. Other platforms such as Windows Phone
must also be considered.
* In ThinLinc, we have a common code base for all of our clients. Large
parts of the client is based on GPL-licensed Open Source projects, such as
TigerVNC. However, the Apple App Store does not allow such software. This
means that we would need to re-write the entire core of our client into
proprietary software. This would require a huge amount of work, and also
feels wrong - we would like to continue working with Open Source software.
Due to reasons above, we are instead looking into a HTML5 client. I think
this technology looks promising, although it will likely still be a
secondary / supplemental client type. We expect that it can replace our
Java Applet Client; it will not replace the native clients. It is also
possible that we will create, say, a native Android App later on. There
are few challenges with a HTML5 based client as well:
* For good performance and other reasons, it makes sense to use the
"WebSocket" technology. However, many browsers does not implement
WebSocket yet. This includes the latest stable version of Internet
Explorer and the Android Browser (see http://caniuse.com/websockets).
* The HTML5 specification is still work in progress. The proposed plan is
to "to release a stable HTML5 Recommendation by the end of 2014"
(http://dev.w3.org/html5/decision-policy/html5-2014-plan.html)
* We do not want to compromise on security, so we must ensure that the new
client fulfills our requirement. Websocket does provide encryption
(wss://), but again, there are compatibility issues with certain browsers.
So, it will take some time before a HTML5 client can be a universal
solution.
Btw, apparently the Windows ThinLinc Client works pretty well on Windows 8
based tablets, so if you really need a tablet solution at this point, this
could be something to check out.
Regards,
Peter
On Wed, 31 Oct 2012, Karl-Heinz Frorath - gmail wrote:
> Hello Peter,
>
> Is there in the new 4.0.0-release a html-5 based Web-Client? I want to use Thininc on tablets? Or is there an android-client?
>
> Greetings
> Karl-Heinz
>
> ---------------------------
>
> 2012/10/31 Peter Astrand <astrand at cendio.se>
>
> A beta version of the upcoming 4.0.0 release of ThinLinc is now available. Take it for a spin and let us know what you
> think! We are happy for all feedback, good as well as bad.
>
> Please note that this pre-release version should not be used on critical
> systems. The beta version can be downloaded from our web site:
>
> http://www.cendio.com/downloads/beta/
>
> Rgds, ---
> Peter Astrand ThinLinc Chief Developer
> Cendio AB http://cendio.com
> Teknikringen 8 http://twitter.com/ThinLinc
> 583 30 Linkoping http://facebook.com/ThinLinc
> Phone: +46-13-214600 http://plus.google.com/112509906846170010689
> _______________________________________________
> Thinlinc-technical mailing list
> Thinlinc-technical at lists.cendio.se
> http://lists.cendio.se/mailman/listinfo/thinlinc-technical
>
>
>
>
> --
> Karl-Heinz Frorath
> Lazariterstr. 5
>
> D - 79189 Bad Krozingen
> Germany
>
> Tel.-Nr. : 07633 - 101971
> Mobil : 0152 - 56300179
> FAX-Nr. : 07633 - 101973
>
> Web : http://www.compu-wine.de und http://www.ubuntu-freiburg.de
>
> E-Mail : info at compu-wine.de und khfrorath at googlemail.com
>
> Skype : khfrorath ( if offline, then redirected to the local phone for free )
>
>
>
>
---
Peter Astrand ThinLinc Chief Developer
Cendio AB http://cendio.com
Teknikringen 8 http://twitter.com/ThinLinc
583 30 Linkoping http://facebook.com/ThinLinc
Phone: +46-13-214600 http://plus.google.com/112509906846170010689
More information about the Thinlinc-technical
mailing list