[SOLVED] App virtualization or thin client?

[Sassriverrat]

Good Evening,

So this should be interesting.
I have a Raspberry Pi4. I have a "home server" running Windows 10 Pro-n.
My plan was to make the Pi a workstation, running linux natively. I was hoping someone had come up with a way to which I could install a few programs on the W10 machine and run them from the W10 machine, but displayed on the Pi. I don't want to remote desktop into the Win10 machine....because then I might as well have that machine sitting in place of the Pi. I'd like to just run the programs across the network, if possible. I somewhat considered the idea, if it couldn't be done, of transitioning to making the Pi a Thin Client of sorts, but I don't know of any free software for doing so....I'm open to ideas.
I think my initial idea here is application virtualization. However, I don’t know of any free ones....and it only needs to work in my LAN. Without that, I’d lean towards a thin client approach.



Side note- if I were to just go with a Thin Client approach, how do I set up the virtual machine? I don't have a problem creating a machine and running it from something like Oracle's Virtual box...but that's running on the host's display and such...

thanks!

 

[Alabalcho]

"Thin client" is a RDP client.

"Running on a server" but "displaying on client" is the way X-Server-based applications work, so this could be done but othey way around - application running on Linux (RPi) displayed on Windows (eg thru MobaXTerm)

 

[Sassriverrat]

So here’s my issue- a few of my programs are Windows-only programs and won’t run on Linux (otherwise I’d just go to a Linux OS and that would be it.

I don’t mind if I have to go the thin-client approach (over using an individual app virtualization) but I was looking to see if there was even an individual option for this platform.

 

[Alabalcho]

So, you're back to square one: If you want Linux (running on RPi) to be your primary workstation, you have no other option but to RDP into the Windows.

Can you define what exactly you mean as "App virtualization"? Feel free to give an example.

 

[Sassriverrat]

So I don’t have a problem running a virtual machine in the Windows machine and then the pi as a thin client if needed. However, I figured that could be slow and somewhat taxing to the machine. Maybe I’m wrong.

so my through with the remote app/app virtualization was as follows-
If I could have the running/operating on the Windows 10 machine, but it was receiving inputs and it was visually showing on the raspberry pi, then that would solve my problem. Example:
Wind 10 machine has Microsoft office installed. Pi has Linux running.
I turn on Pi, double click in Linux desktop on an icon. Icon opens what “appears” to be Microsoft Word and to the regular user, it’s just another use of word. In reality, the Window opened is the program actually running on the Wind10 machine and the program GUI are being sent to the Pi while the Pi’s keyboard, mouse, and thumb drive are sent to the Win10 machine.

I think the answer might be a X Window Server/Client, but I need/want to find a free version to try

 

[Sassriverrat]

It doesn’t have to be Linux on the workstation, I just figured the Pi couldn’t handle Windows on itself.....

 

[Math Geek]

what you want is possible for sure, but not through win 10 pro. that is a windows server set-up. you set up the vm and the pi should be able to access it like you are thinking.

i'm sure there is other software that can do it other than windows server, but i've never used any nor even looked to do it. google is gonna be your friend for that info

i know that's what you're asking for but don't know of any off the top of my head so some time spent on google is your best bet to find something other than windows server.

and yes, running the vm WILL eat up resources from the system, so your pc is going to slow up some to do this. unless you have a ton of resources to spare like extra ram, cpu cores and a hdd to dedicate to the vm not being used by the pc itself for other stuff.

 

[Sassriverrat]

I knew it could be done with windows Server but that requires purchasing a copy of Server....which is cost prohibitive for the sake of a house bookkeeping computer.
The pc does have 3 860 evo ssd Samsung drives on sata running so I was going to pull off of one of those for the os itself. However, like you said, 8gb of ram and one processor makes the whole setup a little underpowered for ideal situations. That’s what led me to thinking about virtualization with just the application and not the whole OS, but I don’t seem to see a lot online about free methods for doing this and again, I don’t want to pay for something like Citrix.

 

[Math Geek]

oh yah windows server is crazy expensive. i know "free" is usually part of the question and i don't know of anything that does it for free.

there are some very cheap online options that let you create and access a vm of just about any type that might work as a middle ground. i know digital ocean

DigitalOcean | Cloud Infrastructure for Developers

An ocean of simple, scalable cloud solutions.

www.digitalocean.com

goes as cheap as about $5 a month to run a vm 24/7. and much much cheaper if you only fire it up when you need it but that is probably not a good solution for you since you want specific software installed and each time you restart the vm you'll have to reconfigure it. they can start openoffice and many other open source software with the vm for you which might work for you. you can remote into the vm through the pi easy enough.

however, i belive you can also install such software in the pi and just use it from there. i've remoted into a pi but not the other way around so don't know any specific ways to go about it.

 

[Sassriverrat]

Understood. I’m used to playing around with virtual box on my windows laptop (which runs 4 vms like a CHAMP) but just tonight I saw I could remote the display and such out....so I might play with that.
I had someone else recommend to me a Windows X server/client setup so that’s another thought/option.
The software is specifically only for windows....so that’s where the ideas began.