I will agree that virtual desktops are not what you're looking for if you're primary concern is the display protocol. However, protocol such as PCoIP or ICA/HDX (XenDesktop) do perform well over slower connections and higher latencies and will not be a bad experience. If they're a typical user and are usually typing up a document on one monitor with a reasonable resolution (e.g. not 2560x1600 and higher), even the slowest DSL connection from across the country will work. The drawback is that these products are not free (but they both offer free evaluations). If you want a *free* display protocol, RDP is the best overall option (available on many different client device platforms) but there is also SPICE which I haven't seen used anywhere. Sounds like you're stuck with RDP if video playback is a requirement. Most other free options will not work well with video if RDP already does not work well enough. On Dec 6, 2012, at 2:53 PM, Eric Crist <ecrist at secure-computing.net> wrote: > maybe virtual desktops aren't what you're really looking for? those connections tend to be compressed, and the compression of the video, plus the compression of the remote desktop connection correlates to shit video playback. couple that with added latency, and it's going to be a bad experience. This isn't a hard and fast rule, but you need to consider how things will be used. > > ----- > Eric F Crist > > > > On Dec 6, 2012, at 13:49:51, Raymond Norton <admin at lctn.org> wrote: > >> The desktops would need to be windows. Our main issue is how poor video plays over an RDP session. Have not played with actual virtual desktops, but was hoping it would do better with graphics. >> >> >> >> >> >> On 12/6/2012 1:46 PM, Eric Crist wrote: >>> VNC + X11? >>> ----- >>> Eric F Crist >>> >>> >>> >>> On Dec 6, 2012, at 13:37:57, Raymond Norton<admin at lctn.org> wrote: >>> >>>> We would like to toy around with virtual desktops and don't want to make an investment in something like VMware View . Is there an open source solution that people are happy with? >>>> >>>> >>>> Raymond >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota >>>> tclug-list at mn-linux.org >>>> http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >>> _______________________________________________ >>> TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota >>> tclug-list at mn-linux.org >>> http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >> _______________________________________________ >> TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota >> tclug-list at mn-linux.org >> http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list > > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list