With Windows XP finally being retired in April, Google is hoping that business customers will switch to Chromebooks + VMware, rather than upgrading to Windows 7 or 8. As you may know, Windows (for a variety of reasons) isn't the safest OS for enterprise use - while Chrome OS, at least according to Google, is highly secure and doesn't require additional antivirus software. This solution could also allow you to use high-performance applications like Photoshop on your wimpy, low-spec Chromebook.īeyond platform agnosticism, the biggest benefits of running the Windows Desktop as a Service (DaaS) are ease of management and security. The main use-case here is giving employees access to legacy applications - old, sometimes bespoke Windows programs that are very difficult to upgrade or migrate. The HTML5 viewer is surprisingly good, especially over a high-speed LAN - but you probably won't be using it to play fast-paced games on your Chromebook. (In the photo above you can see an early beta version of VMware View logging into Windows 7 on a Chromebook.)

In this case, that connection is made using VMware View - and as of 2011, there's an HTML5 version of VMware View that works in all major browsers, including Chrome OS. Then, when a user wants to use a Windows desktop or app, they simply connect to the server and request one of those instances.

Horizon (which costs thousands of dollars) is basically a big server that runs virtualized instances of Windows.

The setup goes something like this: You (or rather your company's IT admin) installs the VMware Horizon DaaS server. Apparently 21% of commercial laptop sales in the US last year were Chromebooks - and with Windows XP soon to be retired, Google and VMware think it's prime time you make the jump to Chrome OS. Google, acknowledging that 'many of our customers still use traditional desktop applications' has teamed up with VMware to bring the Windows desktop and apps to Chrome OS.

Vmware horizon for chrome