Look out Citrix/VMware/Ericom: Dell-Wyse joins the HTML5 RDP client club with Project Freezer

Written on Sep 11 2012 Filed under: Dell, Wyse, HTML5 8,055 views, 7 comments

by Brian Madden

One of the surprises of VMworld was that Wyse (now "Dell Wyse") is building their own HTML5 RDP. The benefit of HTML5 clients is that you don't have to install anything on your actual client device. You just visit a web page and you're immediately able to access a remote Windows desktop or application. So far Ericom seems to have the most widely available client HTML5 client, (check out my in-depth review from January), though Citrix has recently released one for Chrome and Firefox, and VMware has shown some technology demonstrations but has not yet released anything.

I got a demo of Dell Wyse's HTML5 client from Ken Coley. They're saying that it's a "less than zero" client, or "sub zero." (The project name is "Project Freezer." Tada!!)

Why's Dell Wyse getting into this market? Ken said that it's part of Dell's desire to provide connections to users anywhere, anytime, from any device. Project Freezer will come out in beta soon with the goal of it going on sale by the end of the year.

Comments

Alan Osborne wrote re: Look out Citrix/VMware/Ericom: Dell-Wyse joins the HTML5 RDP client club with Project Freezer

on Tue, Sep 11 2012 12:10 PM

Citrix has an HTML5 client for Chrome and Firefox web browsers now, in addition to the ChromeBook client:

blogs.citrix.com/.../receiver-for-html5-is-now-available

Brian Madden wrote re: Look out Citrix/VMware/Ericom: Dell-Wyse joins the HTML5 RDP client club with Project Freezer

on Tue, Sep 11 2012 1:08 PM

Cool thanks for the info! I've updated the article text.

Pat Bruns wrote re: Look out Citrix/VMware/Ericom: Dell-Wyse joins the HTML5 RDP client club with Project Freezer

on Tue, Sep 11 2012 2:31 PM

OK, it's great that if your browser is HTML5 compliant, you don't need to install anything. So? That may be fine for casual use, but don't you still need a backend gateway? I'm also skeptical about performance - is it on par with an installed client experience?

Daniel Bolton wrote re: Look out Citrix/VMware/Ericom: Dell-Wyse joins the HTML5 RDP client club with Project Freezer

on Tue, Sep 11 2012 6:49 PM

@Pat

No - far from it, but it has its uses and it's getting better...

It's good for that "almost casual" use category...

Kata Tank wrote re: Look out Citrix/VMware/Ericom: Dell-Wyse joins the HTML5 RDP client club with Project Freezer

on Wed, Sep 12 2012 1:03 AM

HTML5 remind me the time of the Java client... Just a browser and there you are ! but...

- performance and experience was never as good as native client

- "HTML5 is the next IE6"

but that's a good thing to have in your portfolio if you want to guarantee access from everywhere.

Daniel Bolton wrote re: Look out Citrix/VMware/Ericom: Dell-Wyse joins the HTML5 RDP client club with Project Freezer

on Wed, Sep 12 2012 3:20 AM

@Kata

You should check out the vWorkspace Java client ;) - It's surprisingly good.

davidsmith wrote re: Look out Citrix/VMware/Ericom: Dell-Wyse joins the HTML5 RDP client club with Project Freezer

on Wed, Sep 12 2012 10:16 AM

Interestingly, Ulteo has released their first HTML5 client as a demo today!

Check out www.ulteo.com/.../12

There are some interesting videos on PC, iPad and Android devices.

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