virtual desktop

At the VMworld conference, VMware CEO Paul Maritz described efforts to lead virtualization in half a dozen markets at once, only one of which it unquestionably owns now.

Complexity and lowish ROI compared to other forms of virtual computing holds virtual desktops back; Citrix keeps trying to make it simple and cheap

Users want full access to all IT resources from every device, from anywhere, but do the bulk of their real work from just one or two.

Quite a few apps in the Android Market try to solve the problem of how to access, view, and edit office documents with an Android device. It's a difficult task compounded by the limitations of the small screen and keyboard, and by the fact, too, that many document formats are proprietary (Microsoft Office, Adobe PDF, and so on) and are thus difficult for third-party developers to work with. AlwaysOnPC provides a powerful, customizable, cross-platform solution that uses open-source software hosted on a cloud-based, Fedora Linux PC.

Analysts and vendors have been waiting years for 'The Year of the Virtual Desktop' that never happened; now iPads, iPhones may make the delay permanent.

IDC survey shows 70 percent of server workloads will run on virtual machines by 2014; apps running on VMs to outnumber those on real machines this year.

What can the various forms of "virtualization" do for developers? Jon Collins provides a valuable overview.