back to article Amazon's desktops-in-the-cloud 'Workspaces' switched on in Europe

Amazon Web Services (AWS) “Workspaces” desktop-as-a-service offering was launched last November with a big caveat: the service would be lousy outside of the US. AWS therefore declined to offer The Reg a review, a decision we later discovered was entirely justifiable because the service was scarcely usable on a trans-pacific …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    We use desktops on the East Coast...

    ...here in Blighty. Not the greatest experience in the known universe, but not the worst either. RDP is really frugal about what data it sends and seems good at not turning into blurry mess (as VNC does). It's great to be able to project local resources (drives etc) onto the remote client; this makes

    pushing files around a bit easier (I'd rather use a proper FTP server, but internal IT don't seem to care).

    Remote graphical access is one area I find that GNU/Linux seriously lags. VNC simply isn't fit for purpose and X-Forwarding is less than stellar and ends up looking like total garbage circa 1990. Maybe Wayland will help, but I don't think so.

    In an ideal world I'd like to see the features of X-Forwarding (i.e. just the one app) with the quality and speed of RDP.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: We use desktops on the East Coast...

      Tried Spice?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: We use desktops on the East Coast...

        Only once and it seemed no different to VNC (fuzzy graphics and slow), so I discounted it.

        1. JLH

          Re: We use desktops on the East Coast...

          The Amazon workspaces use PCOIP for high qaulity graphics www.teradici.com

          If you are looking for remote OpenGL graphics, have a look at DCV

          www.nice-software.com

  2. IanW

    Using it here

    Heard about it at AWS Summit in London and fired up an instance to do some work on Tableau Desktop Professional (which is Windows only until a Mac version comes out mid year - my home and company only have OS/X, ChromeOS and iOS devices to hand). A few pennies over £20/month for a single CPU, 3.75GB memory, 50GB disk machine which feels very quick here in rural Oxfordshire.

    Client software works on Windows, Mac, plus Android and iPad tablets (even my iPad Mini). Free sync add-on that syncs a directory on your local Windows or Mac file system to a drive on the hosted PC as if it were local. Bundled Firefox plus IE, and you can use Active Directory (not applicable personally, but you can authenticate and side load apps among your user community where desired). Office Professional is on two of the more expensive bundles (up to $75/month with dual CPUs and 100GB storage - my needs serviced by the $35 version).

    Very, very impressed with it. More detailed review at: http://www.ianwaring.com/2014/05/06/fixed-tableau-on-my-mac-using-amazon-workspaces/

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