[ale] VMWare 2.0 rocks

[Jeff Hubbs]

Cleveland -

I was aware of the NT Terminal Server option.  I researched the product
quite a bit way before it came out and I worked out the client-side
configuration of a NTTSE-based app at my previous employer, so I got some
hands-on time with it then.  

The thing is, I really don't want to go that route.  MS wound up turning the
product into its own "version" of NT (The official name IIRC is "Microsoft
Windows NT Terminal Server Edition")  I'd probably be the first person to
try to run the content mgt sw we're using under NTTSE.  Whereas I am
intrigued by the MetaFrame/ICAClient solution you're using and I find that
very attractive, I'm simultaneously put off by having to go to a different
"Edition" of NT and add on more third-party software in order to gain a
certain level/degree of support capability.

The key word there is "support."  When I first evaluated NTTSE a few years
back, I realized that, economically speaking, there was a certain regime you
needed to be within for the product to make sense.  I'd characterize that
regime roughly as follows:  LOTS of weak client machines, efficient and fast
networking, big 32-bit client app, easier to spend lots of money on single
capital purchases than widespread initiatives, limited manpower.  I have a
hard time with the idea of popping for NTTSE solely for *non-user purposes*.
NTTSE, in my mind, was something that gave eight-way Xeons a reason to exist
- so you could support a few hundred instances of a client app running at
once.  

- Jeff

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Cleveland Flowe [mailto:flowe at switchco.com]
> Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2000 11:30 AM
> To: Jeff Hubbs
> Cc: Christopher S. Adams; ale at ale.org
> Subject: Re: [ale] VMWare 2.0 rocks
> 
> 
> Jeff Hubbs wrote:
> > 
> > > <snip vmware, nt gui>
> > 
> > Running NT means running a GUI - and only one of them at 
> that.  One of the
> > things I'm finding tremendously limiting about NT (and this 
> is after having
> > worked with NT for over five years and now getting spoiled 
> by Linux) is that
> > remotely-hosted servers can be manipulated remotely (via 
> PCAnywhere or VNC)
> > but there is only one "instance" of GUI - only one person 
> can be working the
> > mouse and keyboard at a time (well, strictly speaking, two 
> or more people
> > can have a humorous little catfight over where to click and 
> what to type).
> > Right now, I've got two developers in addition to myself 
> working on a
> > dedicated-hosted NT box, and we're usually trying to so so 
> in at least two
> > different places, so coordinating who's "in" when is a PITA.
> Have you tried using NT Terminal Server and Citrix MetaFrame?
> 
> NT Terminal Server allows virtual NT consoles.  MetaFrame 
> runs on top of
> NT Terminal Server and communicates to Citrix's ICAClient.  The
> ICAClient allows me to view that virtual console on my linux 
> box through
> an x-window or web browser.
> 
> > > <snip vmware speed>
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