Microsoft's Windows Virtual Desktop Hits General Availability

Microsoft today announced that Windows Virtual Desktop has hit worldwide general availability. As a result, you can deploy and scale your Windows desktops and apps on Azure "in minutes," the company said today. From a report: Think of Windows Virtual Desktop as a tool for deploying and scaling Windows desktops and apps on Azure with built-in security and compliance. The Azure-based service provides a virtualized multi-session Windows 10 experience and Office 365 ProPlus virtual desktop on any device. The Windows Virtual Desktop client is available on Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and HTML 5. Windows Virtual Desktop also supports Windows Server Remote Desktop Services (RDS) desktops and apps in a shared public cloud. Microsoft announced Windows Virtual Desktop in September 2018, but only in private preview.

Dare one ask?

[DeathToBill]

Linux support?

Re:

[EvilSS]

Linux support as in can you connect to these from Linux? Probably.

Linux support as in you can spin up a Linux instead of Windows desktop? Not directly as part of this releases no. You can spin them up on your own in Azure however. And Amazon AWS has a competing desktop service and Linux desktops are an option over there.

Re:

[thegarbz]

Complete. Microsoft's Azure business has always had more Linux instances than Windows precisely because it wasn't as easy / possible to do this in Windows.

This is new how?

[Micah NC]

Azure has supported VMs for a while now.

Re:

[rschmitz2010]

Great so Microsoft finally has a copy of AWS Workspaces?

Re:

[EvilSS]

Essentially, yea.

Re: This is new how?

[bobcat7677]

This is not simple VMs, this is virtual desktop. Like Citrix. Or AWS Workspaces (which Amazon has had for YEARS). Just Microsoft still playing catch-up with AWS.

Re:

[EvilSS]

This has some management and automation wrapped around it to make it a "VDI" solution. Also a new client to access the desktops.

Re:

[Jaime2]

This is new because in order to launch this product, they had to invent a licensing model for desktop operating systems on VMs that wasn't ludicrous. They did, and that's the real news here. Until recently, no one could sell "desktop as a service", because the licensing required the cloud provider to know where the customer connected from, and what license covered it.

For example, in the past, if a customer connected to a cloud desktop from a tablet - then they needed one of the following; a desktop license

Thin client?

[DarkRookie2]

Isn't this a thin client? Did those ever take off?
I thought they were all that useful and weren't used much.

Re:

[gtall]

It might be useful if you have a Mac and do not want it polluted with MS-Ware, as long as someone else is managing the Winders thing you are remoting into. My understanding is there are several of those remote things out there already, maybe I'm wrong.

Re:

[EvilSS]

No, a thin client is a client device. You can connect thin clients to VDI but you can also use a full desktop (i.e. a home user accessing their work VDI). Thin clients are still being used, mainly in situations where the business doesn't want to a) pay licenses for Windows desktops and/or b) doesn't want to worry about pushing monthly patches to the client Windows PCs. They are also popular in harsh environments like manufacturing floors.

As for if they are used much, I've made a 20+ year career working p

Re:

[jellomizer]

In general we all like the theory of a thin client, however the implementation rarely is well received.
Issue 1: Speed. Thin clients while they don't suck, isn't as snappy as we would like.
Issue 2: Devices. Plug in a Printer, Scanner, A USB Memory Stick, and external drive. Some may work some may not.
Issue 3: Needs a good (and expensive) set of System Administrators. Poor System Administration of a thin client setup can cause a lot of problems very quickly (vs other system which can tolerate some abuse f

Re:

[drainbramage]

Actually, you just described a windows deployment.

Re:

[AF_Cheddar_Head]

Yep, the DoD has thousands deployed to support classified networks. All the data is maintained on highly secured servers with no data on the hardware that is on the users desk. VDI to the rescue.

Re:

[Chromal]

Yes, but now Microsoft has bundled in higher latency, greater network risk exposure with fewer mitigation strategies, and extra cost as "value add" features, both in terms of TCO as well as your immortal soul.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

Isn't this a thin client? Did those ever take off?
I thought they were all that useful and weren't used much.

They were a thing in POS for a while before it was dominated on the high end by cheap full-fledged PCs (used as thin clients) and on the low end by tablets with card readers and bluetooth receipt printers. They were useful in Unix shops for a little while too, because as expensive as they were, Unix workstations cost much more.

Hits general availability?

[Old-Claimjumper]

I can't find the download for my Fedora desktop?

Re:

[nsuccorso]

I feel a great disturbance in The Force. As if a handful of users suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced...

virtual cloud outlook?

[4wdloop]

So now I can RD to a Win10 VM to run IE there to access cloud Outlook 365? Brilliant!

So I can be completely incompetent...

[gweihir]

... and still get secure, high-performance apps with excellent reliability and "compliance"?

In actual reality, there are lies, damned lies, and promised by marketing.

Re:

[Yaztromo]

... and still get secure, high-performance apps with excellent reliability

This is still Widows we're talking about...so no.

Yaz

When referring to scaling a desktop...

[dkman]

When referring to scaling a desktop it would be nice to clarify that we're not talking about graphical scaling (zooming in) we're talking about spinning up virtual machines.

What's old is new again

[scdeimos]

Back in the early 2000's Microsoft's first take on SaaS (Software as a Service) was to talk "web scale" internet providers into hosting Remote Desktop Servers for them running Microsoft Office. RDP was configured to open a specific application upon connection, instead of a full desktop, so customer would RDP to something.or.other.com and have Microsoft Word running on not-their-machine.

Re:

[WallyL]

Sounds like X forwarding in openssh.

Win10 internet login

[sad_]

nobody is seeing the bigger picture?
recent update of Win 10 hides local account and you need to have an 'internet account' instead.
next step is to replace the whole local desktop with these virtual desktops.