Productivity over power with mobile thin-client solutions.

While I was looking at a VIA based notebook, I was thinking ‘Redfly’, ‘Eee PC’, ‘Thin client’ and decided that today I would run the daily operations over 3G and RDP to confirm to myself again that it’s a valid method for mobile working. It’s nothing new at all and if you go back to pre-Origami days and look at the mobile WinCE devices, many of them supported this sort of working. In fact, back in 1986 when I first started working in a networked computing environment, my Sun 2/80 was a thin client. It was a huge device with a disk drive that took minutes to spin-up but it used X11 to remotely display my session from the central server. The principle was much the same. 

Remote Desktop over mobile data

With the advent of 3G and the increase in the number of flat-rate packages available, remote working via thin client solutions makes even more sense than before. Much like working ‘in the cloud’ you get remote processing and storage capability but in the case of a thin session to your home PC, you actually get your normal working environment presented to you in a way that’s sometime difficult to distinguish from a normal desktop session. There is nothing to stop you running up 20 Firefox tabs, Photoshop, Word, Outlook and all your background apps including virus scanners and firewall software just as you would do at your desk and there’s no slow down from your normal desktop processing speeds. If you need to disconnect, you can at no risk to your running applications and then, the next time you log in, everything is exactly as it was when you left it.

RDP security

Other major advantages include security. RDP for example, is a protocol that has a good track record. There are very few recorded examples of security issues with it and you can feel comfortable working in an open hotspot. Remote storage of software and documents also means that when you disconnect your session, your programs and documents are not at risk on your portable device. There are other alternatives to Windows native RDP protocol (although that’s the one I recommend for any private WIn-Win (!) scenario. On Linux you’d probably choose to run VNC, on Apple, the solution is called Apple Remote Desktop and in a corporate environment, something like a Citrix solution is going to handle multiple client types and multi-user management in one package.

RDP Problems

It’s not all advantages of course. In the world of rich web browsing, a remote desktop connection can get clogged with heavy moving-image and media rich web pages and it’s arguable that you’ll end up using more bandwidth and CPU power if this is your primary activity but there are easy ways around this. Simply run your web browsing locally on the device, through an efficient proxy service or use ad and image blocker solutions. Its fair to say that remote desktopping is not a valid solution for any heavy multimedia use. Video and sound should always be played locally on your device to achieve the best quality/power/bandwidth ratio but seeing as that’s what many of us do anyway, there’s no problem with running the remote desktop session concurrently alongside your video or music solution. Sade’s ‘Smooth Operator’ is playing as I write this article on the Samsung Q1 Ultra with a 3G connection into my home PC.

Other disadvantages include the set-up work on the server, firewall and dynamic DNS solution. Data costs also need to be taken into account. For occasional mobile use a limited data plan might be acceptable and the use of low-bandwidth configurations can help a lot but if you want a full-colour experience and don’t want to worry about overstepping the bandwidth mark, a flat-rate plan is a must. In Europe, prices are in the 10-35 Euro per month range now. Be careful that your chosen thin protocol solution isn’t blocked though. (I can confirm Windows RDP works on the Vodafone Germany 3G network with a ‘Volume’ service.) In this 90-minute test using a full-screen 16-bit set-up over RDP (Windows remote desktop) and an application mix of 10% browsing, 5% photo editing and the rest writing this article, I’ve used 10MB of data over a 3G (356kbps) connection on my Q1 Ultra which is locked at 600Mhz to preserve battery life.

In summary then, as 3G coverage goes up and prices come down, mobile working using thin-client solutions becomes a real option. The hardware requirements for real desktop working drop down to levels where costs would be significantly lower and battery life would be significantly higher. Solutions could be ultra-thin and ultra-cheap and wouldn’t need expensive client-side software. Just imagine slotting an iPhone into the side of a device half the volume, one quarter the weight and a 5th of the price of a MacBook AIR and working on your powerful home PC setup for 10 hours on a single battery. Sounds appealing doesn’t it!  As the netbook market matures and OEM’s look for ways to differentiate, this ‘thinbook’ solution will appear more and more and I’m sure we’ll see the dockable phone/netbook scenario being realised at some point in 2008. MID+Keyboard/monitor dock? Where do I sign!

Disdvantages

• Not a media playback solution
• Moving ads in browser kills performance and eats b/w. Adblocker required. Requires business-level flat-rate data service for full mobility.
• Requires home server setup (XP Home doesn’t support remote desktop service) and firewall configuration.
• Requires flat rate internet plan or hotspot connectivity.
• Screen lag on slow networks. On a 1.8mps HSDPA with RDP, the lag is minimal even when using 16-bit colour.

Advantages

• Thin cheap efficient OS.
• One client software costs.
• CPU usage levels very low. Current smartphone plasforms are powerful enough.
• Low hardware requirements means power-efficient hardware platforms can be used.
• Network interruptions don’t affect data being worked-on.
• As much memory as your desktop PC can support to run apps .
• Reduced data syncronisation between multiple devices.
• Cheaper storage devices on a desktop PC.
• High-end processing capability.
• Fast download speeds for display and editing of documents.
• 3G radio can use less power than Wifi in many cases.
• Minimal local storage required.
• Many security advantages.
• Run local and remote services concurrently.

If you have used the remote desktop scenario and have thoughts, tips or warnings, let us all know in the comments below.