Google, VMware, and NVIDIA were on hand at VMworld 2014 to show off a collaborative effort utilizing VMware Blast Performance and NVIDIA GRID vGPU technology. The result will be high performance virtual desktops and workstation-class graphics for Chromebooks.
Imagine getting hardware-accelerated graphics, and at the same time, enjoying the flexibility of a virtual environment. With the flexibility of the Chromebook, manufacturers can design complex 3D models and share them with engineers around the globe. Applications such as Adobe Illustrator CC, Autodesk AutoCAD, Microsoft Office will have no trouble running smoothly in this virtual environment.
“We are breaking down traditional barriers to adopting virtual desktops and offering new economics for the delivery of graphics-intensive applications through the power of the cloud,” said Sanjay Poonen, executive vice president and general manager, End-User Computing, VMware. “Organizations of all industries and requirements will soon be able to embrace the mobile-cloud using a solution that offers a new way to work from three proven industry leaders.”
Chromebooks featuring NVIDIA Tegra K1-processors will be among the first ones to get access to this technology. An early access program will become available in Q4 2014, but users will need to register.
What do you guys think? I think we are starting to see what Google's vision was with the Chromebook.
source: VMware
To be fair it sounds like the major portion of the background processing will still be done in the cloud but the heavy graphics processing will be done on the Chromebook hence the requirement for NVIDIA Tegra K1-processors. I think prior Citrix type solutions simply sent images to the thin client after it was rendered elsewhere.
“You will soon be able to install any Windows application on a Chromebook” would have been misleading. For most people, if you can use it, it’s “running.”
So to be totally accurate it should say “You will soon be able to pretend to run any Windows application on a Chromebook.”
The headline is indead misleading in my opinion but what the heck. If Chrome users (like me) are able to use MS software on the Chromebook, I can use my Windows machine even less than I do now. So you have Windows with the advantage of Chrome OS. That’s a big leap forward. Now, the only problem that has to be solved is the poor hardware support on Chrome OS.
Obviously it is not natively running, not sure why people were confused by the headline. Still a great thing for chromebook owners. I think it’s odd that we can’t shake Microsoft technology STILL but whatever..
Obviously it is not natively running, not sure why people were confused by the headline. Still a great thing for chromebook owners. I think it’s odd that we can’t shake Microsoft technology STILL but whatever..
Agreed. That said, I’ve been doing this for nearly a year. I installed the VMware View Horizon Web Client last fall on my View infrastructure and can run Windows VMs from my Chromebook. It’s not native like you said, but this is nothing new. It’s just stating that now Chromebooks can act as very powerful Thin clients.