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Citrix-Like Server for Linux?

Posted by Cliff on from the seeking-viable-commercial-like-alternatives dept.

Devil's BSD asks: "My school is planning to add remote desktop access so that people can easily access a school computer from home. However, with the financial situation in our Kentucky being what it is, using Citrix Metaframe for Unix/XP and buying all the software licenses necessary will be extremely hard. And with the state department of education (ironically named KDE) very pro-Microsoft, VNC is out of the question. Is there a free or low cost Citrix-like software suite that can give access to a remote desktop and compress the datastream to be able to work on a 56k modem like Citrix's ICA does?"

3 of 70 comments (clear)

  1. Screw what the boss says... by benjamindees · · Score: 3, Insightful
    And with the state department of education (ironically named KDE) very pro-Microsoft, VNC is out of the question.

    VNC is the answer. Your boss is a moron if the only reason is "it's not MS".

    --
    "I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
  2. X11 by babbage · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Nowhere does the article submission mention X11 itself. Was this dismissed out of hand for some reason? As far as I'm concerned, the biggest (and maybe only) strength of X-Windows is the remote display capabilities that are either unavailable or an expensive add-on for other graphical systems.

    Was plain old X11 even considered? If it was, and it didn't meet the criteria, then in what way was it found lacking? Too heavy for a 56k dialup connection? I didn't think it was any worse than Citrix there, but I could be wrong about that. You should be able to get a secure connection via SSH tunneling, and that connection can be compressed if necessary -- there is copious documentation for all this, so I won't repeat how to set it up here, but it's very commonly done.

    The biggest "obstacle" I can think of is that people will need the X11 server software on their end, but again this isn't a very big deal: there are free versions for Windows (Cygwin and MacOSX (Apple's X11 beta, XDarwin), and of course it is the standard graphical layer for Linux & related systems.

    So really, what needs to happen if you go forward with this idea is for some work to go into packaging it up for students & faculty to use, and giving enough training to show how to get going with it. There are a lot of resources out there that can be relied upon, should the state choose to take this path. It sounds to me like what you need most is for someone to make the pitch to those who are making the decisions.

    --
    DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
  3. Re:Uhhh.... by metacosm · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Bottom line. Your question is so massively incomplete that no one could hope to formulate an answer.

    What is your budget?

    What is your existing infastructure?

    What is your timeline?

    What the heck does "And with the state department of education (ironically named KDE) very pro-Microsoft, VNC is out of the question."

    So you are saying that every single application running on your desktops is purchased from Microsoft? Why the heck does pro-microsoft == anti-vnc. VNC is a wonderful, free and cross platform tool for remotely displaying workstation content, that happens to have a pure web client version (great for people at home!).

    If your school ties their balls to MS in such a way -- why not just use Remote Desktop or call up and ask your local Microsoft Rep what he/she recommends.

    Why is this a goddamn ask slashdot?

    *sigh*