Brian Madden TV episode 4 - Microsoft MVP Summit wrap-up & RDP 7 preview

Nice Job! Looking forward to when the NDA stuff becomes public, great stuff!

I really enjoyed this one, thanks guys! I wish I had the inside track on the NDA info though! Hopefully the rest of us won't have to wait too long :-)

RDP 7 looks super - It looks like ICA is finally going to get a challenger and PC-over-IP and other RDP competitors are doomed if this works as promised. M$ is attacking this from the bottom up. They will commoditize every part of the VDI stack - display protocol with RDP7, connection broker with Windows 2008 R2, Hypervisor with Hyper-V and storage with Windows Storage server.  Fun times ahead :)

Great information especially on RDP 7.  VMware is obviously a big competitor to Microsoft and their desktop virtualization product uses RDP as the primary connection protocol.  Citrix is a major partner whose XenDesktop product works on top of Hyper-V / SCVMM and uses a superior ICA protocol.  I wonder if Microsoft realizes that with all these RDP enhancements they are strengthening VMware View on top of ESX by negating a big advantage that XenDesktop has over View.  My only thought is that Microsoft is going to find a way to charge VDI users for using RDP 7.  

Any thoughts Brian?  I would be very interested in your comments.

Hey Sunil,

       Ive been wondering that very same point. I wonder if microsoft is going to put some kind of fee or EULA on RDP7, If not and VMware can use it freely, they are shooting themselves and Citrix in the foot.

Re: Microsoft letting others use RDP7, why would they care? Because every VDI customer who uses RDP 7 is paying VECD! So I think MSFT wouldn't care either way?

And also, BTW, Microsoft's free "in box" VDI solution will be tied to Hyper-V, but that's a VDI thing and not an RDP thing.

Was there any mention about support for webcam streaming or VOIP calls like via Skype, Yahoo Messenger, etc. or something like this for RDP7?

Also is there a new Windows 7 embedded coming out for thin clients, or would we still be using Windows XP embedded?

So I like what I saw in the video, and in the NDA content.  That being said I don't think Microsoft Partners have anything to worry about.  The reason I say that is because all of the fancy features that were shown only work if you have a Vista or Win7 client (I'll believe it when I see it for XP).  The concept of VDI is to run a rich desktop experience from a somewhat dumb device, typically running some sort of Linux.  This is done so administrators don't have to manage Windows on the client and the server, and because linux is basically free.

So Microsoft is enhancing the server side which is great for partners, as this is what we build upon. Since a vast majority of desktops in the world can't run Vista & Win7, it leaves plenty of room for partners to deliver these features to downlevel windows clients, and non-Windows clients.

The multi-monitor stuff is awesome.

One question I have, as I really don't know,  what business applications use DirectX?  I thought this was just for video games, Google Earth & Live Earth?  "If" people are developing line of business apps in DirectX, this is a nice RDP improvement.

I didn't see anything that shows Internet and highly graphical content working over a low speed connection, so ICA and EOP aren't going away anytime soon, although I am looking forward to ubiquitous gigabit network connections.

I love that Microsoft is making great enhancements to the platform and RDP Protocol.  great video guys.

Craid, there is a new embedded OS, called Windows Embedded Standard 2009, but it's based on XP SP3, not Vista.  Windows Embedded Enterprise 2009 is built on XP or Vista, so they'll probably come out with a Win7 Embedded OS too.

I'll have to check in Win7 to see if they've done anything for USB Virtualization or bi-directional audio, as those are the two ways to support VOIP, but USB Virtualization is the preferred method.

fun⋅gi⋅ble   /ˈfʌndʒəbəl/  Show Spelled Pronunciation [fuhn-juh-buhl]  Show IPA

–adjective Law. (esp. of goods) being of such nature or kind as to be freely exchangeable or replaceable, in whole or in part, for another of like nature or kind

PS- My favorite line from Summit was when Steve Balmer said, "MVP's don't ask questions, they make strong suggestions with question marks at the end!"

The entire time I watched the DirectX demo, prior to Pacman appearing, I was thinking to myself "Self, hosted cloud gaming?"  Imaging what that could do for Microsoft's XBox.  Yeah, not TS, App Delivery related, but something to ponder.  VDI sessions of World of Warcraft....sweet

Thanks all for your comments..

RDP 7 includes support for bi-directional audio although it was not mentioned in this video.

You can enable it on the client by going to Options -> Local Resources -> Remote Audio Settings and choosing Record from this computer.

Watch the PDC 2008 presentation for a more complete list of all the RDP 7 features.

blogs.msdn.com/.../terminal-services-team-presence-at-the-microsoft-professional-developer-conference-pdc-2008-in-los-angeles-ca.aspx

Evie wants to know what you mean by "Open the kimono"?

Also, I can read lips.

Great episode BTW!  Keep 'em coming.

Joe

Patrick,

Autocad uses DirectX.

Joe

PC over IP doomed ?  I doubt that.  It's my understanding that these are 2 radically different approaches.  RDP 7 requires DX compatable video cards in the clients for "client-side rendering".  The solutions proposed by most others are focused on host rendering, thus enableing thin or even zero clients.  Considering the solutions offered by nvidia such as the quadroplex for servers, I question the minset of requiring the dedicated hardware in EVERY client.  This might not be much of a factor in the large scale business model, but to an engineering group hoping to consolidate hardware, it defeats the purpose.  If I had a decent DX card at every workstation, what would be point of running my apps off the server.  A simple file server would suffice in this scenario.  Combining virtualization with PCoIP would allow thin clients or "portals" with teradici to be used.