It looks like Windows Server 2008 will have some pretty hefty enhancements when it comes to terminal services and thin client computing. We currently use Windows Terminal Services on Windows Server 2003 at our work and it greatly helps in our administrative load and the number of systems that we need to support, so some of these new enhancements to Terminal Services in Windows Server 2008 have really grabbed my attention.
Here are some of the enhancements:
– Full 32-bit graphic support (millions of colours instead of thousands)
– remote users will be able to use video editing and photo editing applications
– Better support for remote printing
– Support for multiple monitors
– Publication of individual applications, you are not required to publish the entire desktop
Windows terminal services can be accessed from thin clients, desktop computers (including Linux and Mac clients), PDAs and smart phones. This makes it a fantastic solution for mobile workers who need access to specific software applications that may not run on their own equipment.
I suspect that most of the new enhancements will require existing thin clients to be replaced, so I can’t see us using them soon where I work, but software remote desktop clients (running on Windows, Linux or Mac clients) will probably gain access to these new features quite quickly.
Source: ZDNet Australia – When it comes to desktops, fat is the new thin