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

For Fucks Sake, Quit Saying VNC.

[delus10n0]

He wants an entire remote/virtual desktop. VNC will allow you to remotely administrate a machine, but it's not much good beyond that. Terminal Services in NT will do what he's asking, and most likely there's a loonix/unix counterpart. He wants one centralized location for his "virtual" (as in over the internet) desktop that he can connect to anywhere.

So use your brain before posting a reply with "VNC!" all over it. Yeah, it's that lump located two feet above your ass.

.NET doesn't cut it...

[JohnDenver]

I've written this over and over again.

1. .NET is a Java clone with multiple language support.

2. "Web Services" is not software on demand like Java applets, it's a server application that uses SOAP to talk to the client rather than DCOM or CORBA. (Reason for SOAP: Uses port 80 to get through firewalls, making server application accessible throughout internet)

3. Passport is just a lousy password authentication Web Service with additional lousy extras.


What this guys seems to be looking for is a really efficient implementation of XWindows.