Wine Terminal Servers?

e8johan asks: "I have been thinking about trying to sell a Linux based thin client solution to different markets, like schools. One of the big problems with migrating to Linux is the loss of old applications such as Microsoft Office. Has anyone tried to combine Wine and the LTSP? Does it work? If so, it would enable me (and anyone else) to sell services based on a free (as in libre and beer) server running both open office and their proprietary equivalents in a Windows-like environment, thus reducing the migration costs and making the offer more attractive." While this would be an interesting to tackle, would the licensing terms on some proprietary packages complicate such a system?

Comments

crossover has something like this already

[Kastor]

I believe that crossover are selling a server based version of thier enhanced wine that will allow for such access, like citrix and terminal services.

->Kastor

WOW!!!!!!

[Asprin]

DID YOU COME TO THE RIGHT PLACE!

How do you spell 'synchronicity' again?

Try it...

[grunthos]

I have been thinking about trying to sell a Linux based thin client solution

Has anyone tried to combine Wine and the LTSP? Does it work?

<troll>Trying it out would be more useful than just thinking about it.</troll>

Yes, it works fine. As well as Wine does for any Windows app. I'm running it at home. My kids are impressed at how much faster their 486s run as terminals compared to running a local copy of Windows. They're also disappointed that game support sucks.

The biggest problem is Wine's varying level of support for the various DLL's required. This is standard Wine FAQ stuff. You can get widely different results based on whether you use Microsoft DLLs or Wine's built-in reimplementations. Licensing would be a big issue using Microsoft's DLLs.

The second biggest problem is that you're essentially doing streaming video over the LAN, so you can forget about arcade games or anything with high screen update rates. That's a terminal problem, not Wine. TuxTyping has the same problem. (Can anyone recommend a *good* typing tutor that works with LTSP?)

Standard desktop apps work fine. It bugs me to admit it, but I still find Irfanview under Wine to be a better picture browser that the other X/KDE/Gnome ones I've tried.