ChromeBook Network Computer

Simon Phipps former Chief Open Source Officer at Sun explaining why he doesn't view Google's ChromeBook as a Linux laptop. (ComputerWorldUK)

Simon Says...

The Network Computer is back

If I was in the marketing team at Google I woud have proposed the name 
"InternetBook" under a new cathegory called  "Internet Computers" ...

ChromeBook is not just a laptop with Linux. It uses Linux, yes, but that's incidental to the end user proposition. It's a network computer - the same vision at which Oracle failed in the mid 90s and which Sun struggled with for over a decade.

Instead, it's a browser in a box, complete with a local cache for offline use, intended to be used online all the time to access services of the kind Google delivers through Google Apps.

Over time, Chromebooks can take consumer love

ORACLE VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) provides desktop virtualization to replace personal computers with virtual machines (VMs) on a server. Users can access these VMs though any RDP client.

Oracle released VDI 3.2.2 on January 24, 2011. When accessing a VM, the user is presented with an Oracle VDI login screen. Upon entering his credentials, the connection broker determines the correct VM for the user based on customizable policies. Once the VM has been determined it will be made available (resuming when suspended, starting when shut down) and the user is then redirected to the client OS or, if VirtualBox is used as virtualization backend, the RDP server built into VirtualBox.


Remote Desktop Support.


Sure, your Chromebook won't be able to handle an install of...pretty much any piece of software you can name. But remote desktop support means you'll be able to access the copy of Photoshop on your desktop. So when you do need to work, you can just work on your desktop via your notebook.

RDP Client

 for ChromiumOS

Q:

But my *only* gripe with ChromeOS is the lack of a decent RDP client. Not
like Logmein or Teamviewer, but a real RDP client. I manage a bunch of Linux
and Windows servers, and it would be awesome to be able to put my CR-48 to
work in a data center environment. The SSH client is awesome, and having a
full scripting environment is the cherry on the cake.
Does anybody know of a solid, and usable RDP client for ChromeOS? Also, any
idea when Chromoting will be rolled out?

A:
If you don't mind flipping the dev switch and are comfortable following the
directions, you can install rdesktop from
http://www.duh.org/chromiumos/pkgs/ .