You've really got me psyched about this one. I would like to hear/learn more. Do you have any recommendations for sites/more details, or would you mind posting anything here?
I definitely like the idea of utilizing the built in Windows RDC (since all my home PCs use that extensively). On the other hand, the notion of not having to load anything extra onto the client (as you said) is even more appealing.
You're not the only one who wants to achieve that kind of stuff, it's actually quite common for network administrators, especially in MIXED network environments.
VNC:
http://www.realvnc.com/ (NB: I believe you even have commercial "clones" of VNC that support both the VNC as well as the RDC protocol, but for that you need to look elsewhere (just google around!)).
BTW: I can imagine you were a bit affraid to get flamed for this (this being a Linux place), but many of us (if not all) are still connected to the windows world.
Open Source is, first of all, a place of freedom! If you really like Micro$oft, then you are free to do so, although in general this is due to the fact of a lack of experience and knowledge of alternatives (because once you realise the diversity, abundancy and quality that the non-microsoft world has to offer, you start to wonder why the heck people are still using M$ appz and even depend (!) on them...)
I've been "nursed" in an academic environment: where software developers were working in a mixed environment, where Linux, Unix, JavaOS and many other exotic OSses were living together in peace with Windows (95/98/NT)... Ahum... That is to say: all exotic and non-Micro$oft systems were living in peace together, but Micro$oft was always a troublemaker, breaking the rules, breaching security and bending the standards (Micro$oft Java, Micro$oft Kerberus, Micro$oft HTML?
Having to send your CV as a MS Word *.doc? Puke!!!!)... (And I'm not even touching the "buggy" part).
So you can immagine that even in a very tolerant world irritation grows (as a matter of fact, in places where tolerance rules, intolerance is not appreciated and even fiercely hated!).
Micro$oft does not want a free world. If you do not want to live in a free world, we respect that choice, but we hate it when the lack of freedom is pushed onto us... Luckily the world is now quickly changing, but lemme just say this before "antibashers" shout at me: "but you do have a choice!" well this is not entirely true, because MONEY MAKES THE WORLD GO ROUND! Companies with a lot of money are powerfull enough to bend the law and can easily manipulate public opinions by repeating lies so many times that (unknowing) people start to believe them: I have my own Webdesign company, and I have nothing against Windows Server + IIS + ASP + MS SQL but it's sometimes amazing how hard it is to convince a client that Linux + Apache + PHP and PostgreSQL are not only cheaper but also are better.
Dictators know that the first thing they must control is the press, ruling out the dicidents by either shutting them up, or just shouting much louder... M$ still successfully applies that strategy, except that the small voice of the dissidents is growing louder, slowly but surely...
But eh, sorry I get a bit carried away, hehe, we don't want to start a M$ bashing thread here.
It's just that I hate M$'ses untolerance and greed for power so much, that's all, and yet there's stuff I do like about Windoze, especially as a game platform it kicks arse and DOS still rulez for abandonwarez (retro gaming )
But eh... with some nice tools you can still run M$ Software on an otherwise 100% Linux machine: with VMWare you can run all full blown Windoze versions on your Linux as a very well performing virtual machine. From good old DOS to even WinXP Enterprise Server with Clustering!!!!! (VMware also allows more exotic OSses to be run in a virtual machine, like Sco Unix, BeOS (basically any OS that runs on an Intel CPU...). You can even run more than one virtual machine at the same time on the same PC!
And there is WINE that runs Windows progs under Linux and XWine that runs Windows programs that depend on DirectX technology (3D accelerated games, for example)...
So you can see that Linux is pretty open minded and pretty limitless in possibilities and that's where it gets confusing You'll feel lost (which was your first "complaint"), but again: don't worry in time you'll get more secure. By using VMWare (
http://www.vmware.com/), you'll have "best of both worlds" until you are ready to dump your copy of Windows that came with your PC into the waste basket (I'm even authoring Macromedia Director CDs under VMWare!!!), but perhaps I sould try to run it under WINE? lol. (ahum, still need your copy of windows though, to install it in the virtual machine).
Edit: to avoid confusion I'll add the following:
VMWare for Windows (NT/2000/XP) (does not run under Win95/98!!!!) is allows you to run Linux (and other OSses) on a windows machine
VMWare for Linux allows you to run Windows (and other OSses) on a Linux Machine.
VPC for Windows does the same, but also works on Win98 and there is a VPC for Mac! VPC is more suited for gaming because it emulates a directdraw capable videocard. It also uses CPU cycles even when the virtual machine is idle, whereas VMWare is less resource hungry, but emulates a simple vesa videocard... In my opinion VMWare is better suited for "serious work" and VPC for gaming or video intensive appz.
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