The State of Remote Desktops?

frenchgates writes "It became clear to me (when my main machine had to be sent away for repairs for a week) that it's high time to finally divorce myself from any particular computer by using data and software accessible from any internet connected computer as much as possible. I'm talking Visual IDEs, productivity apps, powerful, easy to use email client, etc, all presented to me consistently from computer to computer on my remote virtual desktop. Is anyone seriously trying this? What are the best practices and best applications? What are the biggest shortcomings? What if I limit my demand to "accessible from any internet connected Windows machine with Java installed?" Are there good web sites devoted to this noble goal?"

Comments

It's called X (or X Windows if you prefer)

[Neil Watson]

That is the whole theory behind X.

Getting people to close their slack jaws and look away from Microsoft is another story.

Re:X Windows - Win32 tools

[(H)elix1]

The Windows API - embodied in Win32 - simply has troubles if you "remote" it.

What do you mean? I've found that it is very easy to do most command line tasks with nothing more than a remote web browser after someone told me about the nifty "code red" tools that came pre-configured with my AOL subscription...

Re:Windows PC?

[jgerman]

Technically java only runs on one platform. The JVM. ;)