You can now run your windows apps on Mac, Android!

[TigerSoftware]

Hi Gang,

I have been posting quite a bit about how things are moving into the direction of being able to stream your windows applications, through the internet, and run them on other operating systems. Mainly, we want to tap into the tablets which majority is running Android and Macs.


Amazon just recently published a blog post showing how you can do just that with Appstream.

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/appstream-win-apps-on-devices/

From that post:

Your users can access the applications from devices that run FireOS, Android, Chrome, iOS, Mac OS X, or Microsoft Windows.

Quick synopsis... Appstream has clients set up for android, mac and windows. Our programs will be delivered through those clients. According to the post, Appstream will run all windows app as is.

I will be testing this out and getting back to you on my results.

I don't know about you, but I feel like I just saw Santa Claus putting gifts under my tree. This is big, very big! Monthly service big! haha

Don't forget, the Pro and higher versions of the Builder has security built in for multi users. I will need to rework that to allow multi organizations to setup accounts.


Thomas

 

[TigerSoftware]

This is crazy, I just opened up yahoo and right on the front page there is an article saying Microsoft is setting up a service to stream Windows programs to other devices (android, mac).

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/microsoft-app-highlights-end-windows-205915781.html

This wouldn't be ideal for what we want. It's priced per user while I think Amazon is based on total time used.

Still, that is where the tech is going which is perfect for us. I have a lot of ideas already for using this service.


Thomas

 

[schmutly]

LOL...hi Thomas
When i first saw the line , im thinking "steam your window applicator" so thinking oh..he's into
window cleaning products now HAHA Sounds interesting.
Saw your video...hoping to get into the auto soon, but this does sound intriguing.
I think you mentioned it before im sure.
Thanks for the update...hows the Dog? Seriously...cause im missing my little nomi
in Australia
robbie

ps: i think i also read in news Windows 10 will be free to non-commercial users going the way of the
apple..so, is that true? Been out of it a bit here...thanks God for VPNs HAHA

 

[TigerSoftware]

LOL...hi Thomas
When i first saw the line , im thinking "steam your window applicator" so thinking oh..he's into
window cleaning products now HAHA Sounds interesting.
Saw your video...hoping to get into the auto soon, but this does sound intriguing.
I think you mentioned it before im sure.
Thanks for the update...hows the Dog? Seriously...cause im missing my little nomi
in Australia
robbie

ps: i think i also read in news Windows 10 will be free to non-commercial users going the way of the
apple..so, is that true? Been out of it a bit here...thanks God for VPNs HAHA

Welcome back mate. It's like a reunion here. haha

Oh, this is killer stuff for all of us. I mentioned some other tech that had this potential but there wasn't anything that was supposedly ready to use. I have been watching Amazon's appstream, but it originally talked about some decent changes to the software in order to make it stream.

This announcement said all windows app should run without any changes to them. Now that is what I'm all about. haha

Microsoft just announces doing something similar but they are charging per user. That won't help us. It looks like they are trying to cash in on the average user wanting to use the same programs on multiple devices.

The key takeaway is the tech is there and it's only going to get better when you see Amazon and Microsoft promoting services around it.

Oh, almost forgot, the dog is big and happy. It looks like he may have a ACL problem. I need to get some xrays but is sounds like a common problem with his breed. You still in China?

I'm not sure about Windows 10. I know Microsoft is making asp.net work on linux which also opens up a lot of possibilities. They open sourced the .net core framework to help make it happen. It should be a really interesting year ahead of us with all of these changes.


Thomas

 

[schmutly]

Yep , still in China
Missing the global phenomenon called seasons lol because here in
Nanning as its tropical weather its been on average 30 since April
So that's basically 8 months of summer, and before someone goes well thats GREAT
try high-humidity as well..sigh! But that's ok, its 5x cheaper to live here and the
cost of living in Australia has soared, cant believe it.
Don't know about Canada or America but i guess things have gone up everywhere.

So..not being dumb (yes i am) but in layman's terms does it mean that ANY windows program
will be albe to run on any device, Android,iPhone,Linux etc...is that's right?
So programs we create, irrelevant of the developing environment (VB or Dev Express or Net Framework)
they'll ALL work through this system?
and how fast would they run? What about Databases and stuff...? Just trying to fully get it.
Make out for a minute im from retard central...whats this mean for EVERYONE and how far away
is it?
Thanks...oh, Hope the dog will be fine..

ah..ok.So it does..thats great. It also says on that page last line: "..The first 20 hour of streaming each month are free for one year...." Im in China, i wonder
if i am allowed to try it? Hmm...will have a look.

 

[TigerSoftware]

Yep , still in China
Missing the global phenomenon called seasons lol because here in
Nanning as its tropical weather its been on average 30 since April
So that's basically 8 months of summer, and before someone goes well thats GREAT
try high-humidity as well..sigh! But that's ok, its 5x cheaper to live here and the
cost of living in Australia has soared, cant believe it.
Don't know about Canada or America but i guess things have gone up everywhere.

So..not being dumb (yes i am) but in layman's terms does it mean that ANY windows program
will be albe to run on any device, Android,iPhone,Linux etc...is that's right?
So programs we create, irrelevant of the developing environment (VB or Dev Express or Net Framework)
they'll ALL work through this system?
and how fast would they run? What about Databases and stuff...? Just trying to fully get it.
Make out for a minute im from retard central...whats this mean for EVERYONE and how far away
is it?
Thanks...oh, Hope the dog will be fine..

Yikes, I don't think I could handle 8 months of humidity. Australia is way more expensive than the US. It isn't too bad here.

Yeah, it would run on Android, IOS devices. I don't think our programs would work well on phones because of the user interfaces but on tablets it would be great. Our programs are touch enabled.

I'm still researching this but from my understanding it runs off of a Windows 2008 server environment.

Amazon has different databases set up to run on that environment. We would probably be using a postgre or mysql.

I couldn't tell you about speed until I test it out myself. That is the key, but even if the speed isn't quite there I don't doubt it will be in the near future. It sounds like Amazon and Microsoft will be putting resources on making that type of technology better.

 

[schmutly]

Ah ok...ALso, its not available unless your in the US East (Northern Virginia) and Asia Pacific (Tokyo) Regions so i guess i cant even try it out...hope this changes in the near future.
Thanks for the update

 

[TigerSoftware]

Ah ok...ALso, its not available unless your in the US East (Northern Virginia) and Asia Pacific (Tokyo) Regions so i guess i cant even try it out...hope this changes in the near future.
Thanks for the update

I'm sure it will change. They tend to roll this stuff out once they get it working well in one location. At least it seems that way from the email updates I get.



Thomas

 

[E-Newbies]

This is really exciting & the way forward for sure, VERY happy your looking to develop for the cloud.
Keep going Thomas

 

[Eyasu]

Thomas,
Do clients have to be always online to access or also they can use our software offline in their respective device?
Eyasu

 

[TigerSoftware]

This is really exciting & the way forward for sure, VERY happy your looking to develop for the cloud.
Keep going Thomas

haha I can't take credit for Amazon's new service. Wait, sure I can.

Edited to add: Read my response to Eyasu about how we can modify the Builder to run offline and online using this service. I think it is exactly where we need to head.

 

[TigerSoftware]

Thomas,
Do clients have to be always online to access or also they can use our software offline in their respective device?
Eyasu

Yeah, for this service they would always need to be online. Amazon streams our apps through the internet. So the person would install a Amazon client program, and through that client program our desktop app would be streamed. They don't actually install our programs on their devices.

Now, we can work on a scenario where they install our software on their windows computer and sync database changes to an Amazon database. They could work offline in that scenario but the syncing would allow them to access database, via the Appstream service, on their tablets running Android or Ipads running IOS.

Best of both worlds and that type of syncing is something I have been wanting to implement anyway.

I think for most people who use multiple devices, they are typically always online. Either though the internet or through their cell phone providers.

Now the questions I have is does it run without any lag?
How is the speed on cellular connections?

Like I said previously, even if the service isn't usable right now, I would bet money that it will be within the next year.


Thomas

 

[Eyasu]

Thanks Thomas. This is very exciting.

 

[TigerSoftware]

Research Update

Research Update

Ok, I have been looking into this quite a bit over the weekend.

I would say Amazon is off the tables right now. It's too expensive and I read the tech is a little laggy.

Microsoft, on the other hand, works as we would want it. Well sort of...

The technology works perfectly for what we want. Android and Mac users install the the client and through that our software runs as if it was running on a windows machine.

It looks perfect and from the sounds of it runs very good.

Now the bad part...


Microsoft is charging decent prices but on a per user bases. 40 hours a week is charged at 17 dollars a month. If you go over 40 there is a hourly rate but it caps at $23. So it can be between 17 and 23 a month for the user.

Not bad really and much more affordable than Amazon at this time.

Now, setting up the users is tricky. This service is set up for corporations. It isn't really geared towards Software as a Service like we want.

I haven't seen anything that could automate setting up users and such. It looks like a manual process.

I have been looking through the forums and it is very possible that this can move towards a Software as a Service, service. haha A lot of people have been leaving feedback and it sounds like many want to use it he same way as we would like.

I have a feeling, with time, it will go our way.

To recap:

The technology is already there when it comes to running our programs on Android and Mac. It looks and acts the same as if it was running on Windows.

The best service and best prices is Microsoft RemoteApp.

The service itself needs some changes to fully allow us to run our programs as a service. It looks like it is going that way with all the feedback I have seen.

Good times for us in the next year! I gotta get back to work now.

After I get the latest ESB version out, I will look into changes needed to run on the cloud asap.

 

[aussieokie]

Sounds pretty exciting Thomas. Looking forward to further developments!
Cheers,
Jim.