Application Virtualization in Linux Environment
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@DustinB3403 said in Application Virtualization in Linux Environment:
@scottalanmiller said in Application Virtualization in Linux Environment:
@EddieJennings said in Application Virtualization in Linux Environment:
I'm curious to know if my company was a Linux shop instead of a Microsoft shop, how could similar application virtualization be done?
The simple answer is... XenApp works the same on Linux as on Windows.
I don't belive @EddieJennings was asking if XenApp would need to be used, but instead what other Linux based Application Virtualization tools like XenApp exist?
I get that, but XenApp is equally a tool on Linux as on Windows. It's not one or the other. So nothing is as much of an answer as that.
XenApp is the XenApp equivalent on Linux
But there are loads of other options... X does it natively, NX will do it, etc.
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@scottalanmiller said in Application Virtualization in Linux Environment:
@DustinB3403 said in Application Virtualization in Linux Environment:
@scottalanmiller said in Application Virtualization in Linux Environment:
@EddieJennings said in Application Virtualization in Linux Environment:
I'm curious to know if my company was a Linux shop instead of a Microsoft shop, how could similar application virtualization be done?
The simple answer is... XenApp works the same on Linux as on Windows.
I don't belive @EddieJennings was asking if XenApp would need to be used, but instead what other Linux based Application Virtualization tools like XenApp exist?
I get that, but XenApp is equally a tool on Linux as on Windows. It's not one or the other. So nothing is as much of an answer as that.
XenApp is the XenApp equivalent on Linux
But there are loads of other options... X does it natively, NX will do it, etc.
Are X and NX products?
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@DustinB3403 said in Application Virtualization in Linux Environment:
Are X and NX products?
X is the native Linux desktop display system. NX is a product like XenApp.
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Linux does "application virtualization" like XenApp for literally every app it shows. It just does it automatically, locally and doesn't tell you.
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In the past when I've seen customers use Citrix XenApp, and whatever it was called then, it was always to avoid installing some seldom used application on a bunch of clients. Probably both from a cost perspective as well as from a IT management perspective. So customers where running windows machines and could have installed it locally if they wanted to, but opted not to.
Speaking of that I actually haven't seen that many customers use thin clients. I like the concept but when a desktop with win10 costs the same as a thin client, it becomes hard to justify.
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@Pete-S said in Application Virtualization in Linux Environment:
In the past when I've seen customers use Citrix XenApp,
MetaFrame!
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@Pete-S said in Application Virtualization in Linux Environment:
Speaking of that I actually haven't seen that many customers use thin clients. I like the concept but when a desktop with win10 costs the same as a thin client, it becomes hard to justify.
that's why using a full OS is the standard "thin client" used today. Just not worth doing anything else.
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@scottalanmiller said in Application Virtualization in Linux Environment:
@Pete-S said in Application Virtualization in Linux Environment:
In the past when I've seen customers use Citrix XenApp,
MetaFrame!
Ahh, that sound familiar.
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@Pete-S said in Application Virtualization in Linux Environment:
it was always to avoid installing some seldom used application on a bunch of clients. Probably both from a cost perspective as well as from a IT management perspective.
most vendors figured out to license it so that there was no cost savings that way. But for a seldom used app, IT often likes it done that way.
Also can be handy to make an app with low visual needs get gobs of server processing power.
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About to be in a meeting (not related to this)
I’ve had a little time to think this through. It seems like offering virtual desktops through Linux could be as simple as having something like Guacamole set up. Users could use whatever computer they want as long as they have a browser, they login to Guacamole, have their desktop presented and be on their way. I’m probably oversimplifying Guacamole, but at a high level that seems like what’s going on.
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@scottalanmiller said in Application Virtualization in Linux Environment:
@Pete-S said in Application Virtualization in Linux Environment:
Speaking of that I actually haven't seen that many customers use thin clients. I like the concept but when a desktop with win10 costs the same as a thin client, it becomes hard to justify.
that's why using a full OS is the standard "thin client" used today. Just not worth doing anything else.
True. There are however TLXOS, a thin client OS that runs on Raspberry Pi and x86, that could become a useful thin client with the right price. It has support for citrix, vmware, rdp/remoteFX and some other stuff. Perpetual license was only $10 for RPi. It comes with an administration application as well.
I had some problems with it when I tested it with NX as it only supported the older open source protocols. And I was disappointed with its RDP software but that was almost two years ago so it might be better now. It also had some kiosk mode that I liked.
But if it works, it's a $50 thin client. I guess you could roll your own too based on debian/raspbian.
Here a old review on it (not by me):
https://xenappblog.com/2015/thinlinx-on-raspberry-pi-first-impressions/ -
@EddieJennings said in Application Virtualization in Linux Environment:
I’ve had a little time to think this through. It seems like offering virtual desktops through Linux could be as simple as having something like Guacamole set up. Users could use whatever computer they want as long as they have a browser, they login to Guacamole, have their desktop presented and be on their way. I’m probably oversimplifying Guacamole, but at a high level that seems like what’s going on.
Of course, same as on Windows. But this is neither application virtualization in the real sense, nor is it in the XenApp sense. This is nothing more than yet another remote desktop solution like RDP, VNC, NX, etc. Guacamole is simply a tool to convert those into an HTML5 interface. It is great stuff, but in no way relates to what you seem to have been asking about in the thread.
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@Pete-S said in Application Virtualization in Linux Environment:
I had some problems with it when I tested it with NX as it only supported the older open source protocols.
Can you not install the commercial NX client onto it?
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@scottalanmiller said in Application Virtualization in Linux Environment:
@Pete-S said in Application Virtualization in Linux Environment:
I had some problems with it when I tested it with NX as it only supported the older open source protocols.
Can you not install the commercial NX client onto it?
I can't remember but I think NoMachine didn't have the RPi3 version at the time. Maybe I should give this entire thing a new spin with the new RPi4 I have. In the past the problem with graphics on the RPi has been the GPU support and hardware offloading.
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In Windows, I've set up RemoteApp with some applications. It's not App Virtualization at all. It's basically an app installed on a Windows server, accessed via RDP, made to look like a local app from a user's perspective.
I only did this because in cases it being a shitty app, not running well on Windows computers because of incompatibility problems, usually with other things installed with conflicting versions of requirements with other apps.
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In Fedora for example, their way around this kind of thing is their modular installs. Or containers for example with most things.
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@EddieJennings I think the biggest challenges there are two fold...
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Defining what you mean. Because XenApp does one thing, and application virtualization is something different. And the use case you are mentioning (Guacamole) is a third. Instead of taking a product or term and looking for something similar, start with the functionality that you wish to emulate.
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What's the end goal. What problem do you want to solve.
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@Obsolesce said in Application Virtualization in Linux Environment:
In Windows, I've set up RemoteApp with some applications. It's not App Virtualization at all. It's basically an app installed on a Windows server, accessed via RDP, made to look like a local app from a user's perspective.
Yeah, there was a thing about ten years ago to brand anything with RDP involved as "virtualization", even though there is nothing virtual about it.
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@scottalanmiller said in Application Virtualization in Linux Environment:
@Obsolesce said in Application Virtualization in Linux Environment:
In Windows, I've set up RemoteApp with some applications. It's not App Virtualization at all. It's basically an app installed on a Windows server, accessed via RDP, made to look like a local app from a user's perspective.
Yeah, there was a thing about ten years ago to brand anything with RDP involved as "virtualization", even though there is nothing virtual about it.
Hey, the RDP desktop is virtual. It's not a physical desktop environment on a screen somewhere
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@Pete-S said in Application Virtualization in Linux Environment:
@scottalanmiller said in Application Virtualization in Linux Environment:
@Obsolesce said in Application Virtualization in Linux Environment:
In Windows, I've set up RemoteApp with some applications. It's not App Virtualization at all. It's basically an app installed on a Windows server, accessed via RDP, made to look like a local app from a user's perspective.
Yeah, there was a thing about ten years ago to brand anything with RDP involved as "virtualization", even though there is nothing virtual about it.
Hey, the RDP desktop is virtual. It's not a physical desktop environment on a screen somewhere
It was a big push when companies couldn't figure out what "virtual" meant, and they kept seeing system accessed remotely. And the companies that couldn't figure out virtual often were not that versed in remote access either, so they started assuming that things like Remote Desktop was the virtualization rather than the hardware abstraction layer and so started saying that they were virtualized just because someone, somewhere used RDP for something, lol. Such a train wreck.
