View Full Version : Running desktop Lianja Apps in a browser from a Linux server
barrymavin
2013-03-24, 01:33
Guacamole; a free HTML5 Client Remote Desktop for running desktop Lianja Apps in a browser from a LInux server. Centralized desktop apps running across a LAN from Ubuntu anyone?
Check it out at:
http://guac-dev.org (http://guac-dev.org)
I use something similar on Windows from www.remotespark.com. It too also runs on Linux using XRDP.
Simon
barrymavin
2013-03-24, 21:01
Simon, that looks good too. Guacamole is free. There is no pricing for remotespark on their website. How much is it?
The pricing for Remote Spark is $24 per year based on concurrent users.
barrymavin
2013-03-27, 18:34
We have stumbled on another one which is free, LGPL licensed and runs well on desktop browsers as well as being touch enabled on iPhone, iPad, and android. It also uses the on screen keyboard. I'll keep you posted but this is is looking good and performing well.
barrymavin
2013-04-18, 23:28
Simon, Actually after talking with them its more like US$4900 per year. Quite pricey. We have Guacamole all working nicely and it will be included in the Lianja Cloud Server Appliance, all configured and ready to go.
Hi
I have never priced out an unlimited server which I know is pricey. I have only ever done it per concurrent user which has worked fine for me. I am glad to hear that Guacamole is working nicely and I will give it a try. The problem I now have is that Windows 2012 requires more than one server in order to offer remoteapps so I would like to move to Linux to avoid the extra complications.
The Guacamole product must be run on a Linux Server but does it require anything more than basic Terminal Services on the Windows Server in order to connect to applications on the Windows Server? The reason I am curious is that MS changed the way RDS works in Windows 2012. You have to be a domain user to configure RDS so if only have one server it must a domain controller but this introduces a Catch22 in that the required Remote Desktop Connection Broker cannot be run on a domain controller so you then need two servers. In Windows 2003/2008 this is not the case and is much simpler to setup. All this is starting to make me question my continued use of Remote Desktop Services. I am going to have to get more serious about move my applications to Linux to avoid the continual complications MS introduces with their new products. I like Remote Desktop because it is fast, no data ever leaves the box and it can be accessed from any where but I would like to keep it simple and the new RDS introduces a number of new dependencies.
Simon
Hi Simon,
Guacamole is not RDS: it is completely HTML in the browser.
Hank
barrymavin
2013-04-20, 20:42
Nothing is required to be installed or available on Windows as this is a pure HTML5 client. It runs in any HTML5 browser on any operating system. Zero-install HTML5 browser client with your apps running on the Linux server.
Yes I realize that is is pure HTML in the browser but it requires components to be setup on the server to deliver this functionality so it is the server setup requirements that I am interested in learning more about. The current product I use for doing this now uses the TomCat server with a java application that connects to Terminal Services. The RDP protocol this is then converted by the java application and sent to the browser. It runs on both Windows and Linux servers. It works very well but you pay per concurrent user and you must have RDS setup on the Windows Server or XRDP setup on the Linux Server. So I wondered how the Guacamole server components accessed the Windows Application in order for it to be displayed in the browser.
barrymavin
2013-04-22, 07:38
Yes it uses xrdp and tomcat also. There us a daemon running on Linux that handles it, so it's completely Linux based.