thin client technology that does not require terminal services on Windows or simply runs on Linux

Question

In our company we run a database-driven .NET application to perform our day-to-day activities. We currently use Citrix but it's way too expensive. We investigated other options like 2X, but we realized that we still need Terminal Services license for every user, plus other licenses Microsoft requires you to have.

My question is, based on your experiences, has anybody used a thin-client technology that doesn't require terminal services ? or can we host windows XP with our custom .NET application on Linux using a thin-client technology available on the market ?

We would like also to run few other applications such as Office and other .NET-based applications.

Answer 1

As you say, Microsoft licensing means you still have to pay if you have thin clients, Windows-based or otherwise. Does your application run on Mono? It might then run directly on Linux.

More info on RemoteApp usage here and RDS Licensing here.

Answer 2

ACP has a solution which is less expensive than Citrix and has an unlimited license (as many users for a fixed cost). www.thinmanager.com

It is still terminal services based though, you need TS CALs.

Disclaimer - I work for ACP :)

Answer 3

You also have ThinRDP or Steemind, which are very thin because you just need a web browser to access your apps, but both are using Terminal Services.

The latter, however, doesn't require an HTML 5 browser (works even on IE6).

Disclaimer: I work for Steemind.