Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Windows 7 Running on the Apple iPad via Citrix - citrix - Gizmodo

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Windows 7 Running on the Apple iPad via Citrix

Trumpets playing, bloody moons, seas of fire, cats cohabiting with dogs, and Windows 7 running on the Apple iPad right on the day it launches. That's how the Universe ends, my dearly beloved, and you can blame Citrix for it:

It turns out the 9.7 inch display on the iPad with a 1024x768 screen resolution works great for a full VDI XenDesktop. Windows applications run unmodified and securely in the data center, and even multiple applications at once.

The iPhone restrictions of screen size and small keyboards are overcome with the iPad. The iPad looks to be an ideal end-point device that can empower users to be productive wherever they are and IT will be able to safely deliver company-hosted virtual desktops and apps without worry.

Those are the wet words of Chris Fleck, the vicepresident of virtualization and remote software company Citrix. And what you are seeing above is Windows 7 running on the iPad SDK simulator, thanks to Citrix Receiver and XenDesktop 4—running meaning that it's executed on a server and remotely displayed on the iPad at full resolution.

Fleck sounds excited on his blog, and points out that the software will be ready for the launch of Apple's JesusTablet. Personally, I can't wait for other remote desktop applications to be adapted for the iPad full resolution. [Citrix via PC World]


Send an email to Jesus Diaz, the author of this post, at jesus@gizmodo.com.

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Hey Jesus, I feel your pain but no matter how many mockups you make with a small bezzel, the real iPad will always have one big enough you can rest your coffee on it. Keep the dream alive my small bezzel loving friend Reply
Edited by TonyWonder at 02/02/10 12:39 PM

Jesus,

Just curious. What is with Gizmodo's novel use of the word "wet" lately? From Joel, we get "It's taken me a couple of days for me to understand the wet sickness I felt" and yours, above.

I checked with UD, to see if it is some new kind of slang, but no luck. I am genuinely curious.

Is it from a movie? Reply


@Don Is: Its in reference to female stimulation in response to the announcement of the iPad that is currently felt by most of the Gizmodo editorial staff. I think. Reply

Jesus, I hate to complain, but this is misleading. Citrix sends out, basically, a video signal to a client display. The client isn't "running" anything other than the Citrix client software.

Saying Windows 7 is "running" on the iPad here is no more accurate than saying that I currently have Windows 7 running on my Dell monitor. I don't. The software is running on the computer; the monitor is a display. Windows 7 is NOT running on this device. The fact that the iPad can effectively run a Citrix client is definitely newsworthy on its own, and there's no need to mislead by claiming something that isn't true. Reply


I was honestly looking at the JesusTablet, but I can't wait three days for it to restart every time it dies... Reply

This is non-news for consumer users, but for all of us lawyers out there, this could be the difference between lugging our crappy Dell office laptops with us on vacations and weekend trips and tossing an iPad into a carryon. I had no intention of buying one until I heard about this on Sunday; now I think it's 60/40 that I will. Reply

@Astigmatism: Or just getting any of those many tablets that can do this naively since they are running Win 7 on the actual device. Just one less hoop to jump through that way. Reply

@Xeno: There's no "native" here, though - it's always just a presentation screen on your computer, with the actual apps running remotely on the (Windows-based) server. I use Citrix from home both on my iMac and my Vaio, and the experience is pretty much identical. The only thing that really puts me off this device, honestly, is the Flash thing, as Xeraphim notes. Reply

@Astigmatism: You can do the same thing on an iPhone, a Touch, and a netbook. Reply

Windows 7 on the iPad? Now you are taking. I would be interested in an iPad only if it had Win 7 on it. Reply
Xeno promoted this comment

@pupaboy3: It's called the HP slate. Reply

There is a VNC client for iPhone; sure there will be one for iPad. No need for Citrix.
Reply
Nathan Obbards promoted this comment

Remote access of full-fledged computers via terminals? Input and output on a basic shell, with a sort of... of... main frame doing the heavy lifting? Why, it's so crazy it'll never work! I mean, for starters you'd have to have some kind of completely wireless persistent network available all over the world. Reply

@Killjoy: Actually, I use it every day and it works quite well. As for the persistent network, WiFi is preferred but any connection will do. Reply
Killjoy promoted this comment

@Philip Barnett: Aw, hell. I forgot the sarcasm tag, didn't I? Reply

"running meaning that it's executed on a server and remotely displayed on the iPad at full resolution."

It will be interesting to see if Citrix codes their client software for the iPad to allow HDX, which takes advantage of client-side hardware for graphics and computing power. Seeing a demo of this working with 3D Studio MAX is a sight to behold.

For those who are concerned about the cost of such a system, yes, this is a business oriented total virtualization solution that Citrix offers which means the overall cost is out of reach of an individual. From what I gathered at a Citrix sales pitch last week, the lowest buy in price of the software is roughly $225 per seat (individual client license). At my company, we're looking to buy 170 of theses licenses, which is rather cheap for a company, but crazy for an individual.

However, given the fact that Apple's iPad has the attention of Citrix, who's to say they won't come out with a consumer version of the solution to provide individuals full computing power on their Jesus tablet? Reply


Jesus pad? Are you serious? Reply
AmishJohn promoted this comment

@seanpat12: It's only good for three days. Reply

I've been in shock since the 90's that Citrix still exists. They basically sold their best technology to MS in the 90's and have been using the cash to try and come up with something profitable ever since.

Am I completely wrong? Do they actually have a decent product that stands on its own or are you still better off just running a plain Jane 2Kx box running TS? Last I knew their main product is nothing more than Hummingbird (Virtual Apps). Reply


@UnderLoK: The difference, at least that I see, is that you can't push an application on TS, so someone could have Word, and only Word, on demand, without having to have a new desktop. Reply
UnderLoK promoted this comment

@Greg Lloyd: That's all I know of which was a failure long before Citrix did it (Hummingbird would allow you to send specific X apps as well back in the 90's). I can see it working well for POS, but beyond that I don't really see the point.

This coming from a guy who uses Fusion on a daily basis... ;) Reply

Edited by UnderLoK at 02/02/10 8:27 AM

@UnderLoK: Citrix makes tons of money in the corporate space, allowing virtual sessions when you don't trust people to access your network (think offshoring). Reply
UnderLoK promoted this comment

@cprincipe: But you can do that with TS as it is. Sure there is a little less load, but I don't see it as being all that significant. Then again, the largest TS house I've worked in only did 40 at a time. Reply

I'm a little confused. So Citrix is essentially running a custom Virtual Machine over a desktop onto an Ipad? Seems kinda silly but hell if I hear Windows 7 is running on an Ipad... That's pretty cool. Reply

@armendni: Windows 7 isn't running on the iPad. The iPad is connecting via terminal services to a VM running on a server off in the cloud somewhere. You could do this for MacOS, Linux, anything that has a VNC or RDP server. The iPad is only running a little program that connects to a VNC/RDP server and displays it's screen, and passes keyboard/mouse events back. You can already do this, today, on the iPhone. Reply
armendni promoted this comment

@acidrain69: oh ok that's what I was thinking... thanks for clearing it up for me. Reply

His Steveness will not like this. Reply

@SewerShark: No he won't, but this would be the only way I'd buy one of the damn things. Reply
SewerShark promoted this comment

I already do this on my iphone via RDP, it's ok and lets me listen to music over flash from my server thatsits in a FAST data center but it isn't a real solution. The UI is no suited to the device and its really hard to navigate. Either the ipad will support flash, via jailbreak or other mean, or I'm not buying one.

Hey adobe! release a flash client via cydia and make everyone happy.

Give a nice 1 finger salut to apple at the same time. Reply

Benguin approved this comment

@Cy Cyril: You actually raise a pretty interesting point. I wonder what would happen if Adobe did release a flash plugin via Cydia. Their stance of "Apple maintains a closed ecosystem and won't allow open development" always read to me more as "Why bother fixing anything when we have a perfectly good scapegoat right here."

If they were to undermine Apple like that, I see one of two things happening:
1) They prove that Apple are just being giant dicks and flash isn't as horrid as they make it out to be
2) They prove Apple right and everyone on the internet can stop whining.

We as consumers could not lose. Reply


Did the author just name a product he doesn't own after himself? Reply
Covertghost promoted this comment

@pixelsnader: Hey, Apple named a product a name they don't own for themselves.

Why can't we? Reply


is it possible to hack the iPad then install a free new OS on it? Apple sais iPhone OS is a stripped down Leopard Reply
UnderLoK promoted this comment

@SmallShark: It has an ARM based processor so your options are extremely limited. Reply

@UnderLoK: Not reallty, there are loads of Linux based OS's, the problem is drivers for the OS's. Reply
UnderLoK promoted this comment

@Mr_Bishop: Linux dists you mean... Linux is the OS, Debian, Suse, RH, Slack, and the rest are dists.

So as I said you are extremely limited. You can run Linux or FreeBSD or? That leaves a pretty big gap as far as usability goes. You know, since most people need OSX or Windows. Reply

Edited by UnderLoK at 02/02/10 8:43 AM

@UnderLoK: Yeah I guess if your hell bent on running a closed source OS. Personally i like Ubuntu,Debian,Android and the rest. If only they would combine Android and chrome OS... Reply

@Mr_Bishop: Ubuntu has done one thing right, get the masses to see Linux and try it for themselves. Problem is that Linux IMO is still only good as a server and still fails on the desktop like it always has.

The draw used to be a fancy desktop which brought people in the droves to Linux. Enlightenment alone was responsible for most of the influx of users in the late 90's. Now Gnome and KDE are bloated, XFCE isn't bad, but E it is not. Hell they don't even look as good! OSX's dock that people go on and on and on about? Looks just like E's did, that brushed aluminum look? Again a default E theme... The list goes on.

I would just like to add that if you are hardcore OSS you should be running Fedora. Ubuntu supports more hardware for a reason. Reply

Edited by UnderLoK at 02/02/10 9:19 AM

@UnderLoK: Im not hard core by any means, i mean sure i use Ubuntu Almost exclusively instead of windows but im learning. Excluding available software and one issue with my old nvidia GPU ive yet to have any issues compared to XP. I also like Gnome more then Explorer (im assuming thats what you meant by E?) Ubuntu runs smoother, longer, and cooler on my PC then XP did. Reply

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