AWS adds browser access to its cloudy WorkSpaces desktops – but not for Linux

Amazon Web Services has stolen a march on Microsoft's cloud desktop plans by adding browser access to its WorkSpaces desktop-as-a-service offering. Browser access will only work for WorkSpaces running Windows. Linux users are out in the cold and AWS hasn't said when or if penguin-powered desktops will get to play. The service …

[Anonymous Coward]

That is awfully pathetic when a browser app only supports one platform. Pretty clear it isn't a "browser app", but a DESKTOP app PRETENDING to be a browser access that is using all kinds of OS-specific hooks that must bypass normal sandboxing.

[PTW]

From my understanding of the article, it's the hosted OS that needs to be Windows, not the client [browser] OS

[Tabor]

That was what I understood as well. And I just tried to access from my phone, I got the error that Chrome or FF are required on OSX, Linux or Windows.

[Paul Crawford]

If it depends on the underlying OS it is not a browser support, it needs specific OS support (i.e. it is no different from a desktop application).

That is pretty crap considering what is often done using just HTML5 and/or JS.

Why is it often the biggest of companies that suck here? Remember VMware and needing specific versions of Flash? Or Cisco WebEx needing older versions of some browsers?

[Anonymous Coward]

browser === web_browser

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[mark l 2]

If you want a virtual Linux PC in the cloud, just install your distro of choice and install some remote desktop software such as X2go.

It works over SSH so there are no extra ports needing to be opened on the remote Linux machine firewall. Although you need to install client software on your PC to access the remote session. I believe you can also set it up to work with within a browser but I never got around to testing that when I tried it on a cheap VPS a few years ago.

[Anonymous Coward]

X2Go only supports limited functionality because it uses such an out of date and unmaintained X-server. It doesn't work for MANY applications that require OGL > 2.0.

[frankyunderwood123]

This is getting a bit Meta

So, on my Desktop, could I run a browser with a desktop in it and then, using a browser on that desktop, run a browser with a desktop in it... and...

I need a beer.

Could I run a virtual machine on my Linux Desktop, that runs windows and in that virtual machine, run a browser with a desktop in it ... and ...

Could I use that desktop in a browser, to VNC into my Linux desktop and crash the entire internet?

I'll get my coat ...

[Robert Carnegie]

Re: This is getting a bit Meta

You probably can already run a browser inside itself...? (I'm not sure, but it'd the sort of thing that happens.)

So if I've got this straight, an AWS virtual "desktop PC" is already a thing, and the news is that you can connect to it with a Web browser... not, that a Web browser /in/ the AWS "desktop" has just arrived.

Either way, presumably it still enforces, if a corporate customer so wishes, the sort of internet policy that prevents you from communicating with or recognising any customer whose family name happens to be Titcombe.

[katrinab]

Re: This is getting a bit Meta

You can run Windows 95 inside a browser, and you can run Internet Explorer in that.

I definitely don't recommend it as a daily driver, but it can be done.

I've also seen MacOS from around the same time running in a browser.

[JavaJester]

RDP + SSH Tunnel = Linux Remote Desktop

A fairly straightforward way to get a remote desktop from a Linux type system on windows. Run xrdp and tunnel RDP port 3389 on the Linux to something like 3390 on the windows host (because Windows is already running its RDP service on 3389), then connect to localhost:3390 and ta da! A remote desktop.