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In the last couple of months VMware released 2 versions of it’s Horizon Suite: 6.1 and 6.1.1. Both releases mostly consist of new functionality.

To view some of the new Horizon 6.1 features, click here.

This post sums up some of the new functionality in Horizon 6.1.1 I think are really cool or worth mentioning:

Published Application support in HTML5

As “it’s all about the App”, VMware put published application support in Blast for HTML5 supported browsers. With Blast it is now possible to directly start an application without the need for a complete desktop. Did I mention that tablets and most smartphones also support HTML5? 🙂

Full support for Chrome OS

With a newly released Horizon client for Chrome OS, the lightweight operating system is now fully supported to use as a device for an end user. Imagine running your complete office suite on a device that’s really portable and ready to use within seconds. During the Technical Update Session 2015 we brought a Chromebook to demonstrate the potential of the Horizon support in Chrome OS. Would you like to have a demonstration? Please contact us here.

Linux Desktop support

Every big company has developers use an Operating System other than Windows to develop on. Most of the times, normal VM’s need to be created for that purpose and a separate tool is needed to let the user connect to it’s developing machine. VMWare announced to support Linux as a guest operating system. How nice is that? Full clones with Ubuntu, Redhat and CentOS can be deployed with an Horizon Agent so the end user can connect with it through the Horizon Client, Blast and through the Workspace Portal. And one of the best things is, ITQ is early access partner!
Would you like to know how to implement Linux as Guest OS? Our consultants can help you.

Client Drive redirection

Finally, for both Windows and Mac OSX devices running the latest version of the RDP client, redirection of local drives is available in the Horizon client. It is now possible to edit local Microsoft Office documents without having the Office Suite on your local device.

Serial Port redirection

With Serial Port redirection it is possible to use a local serial port from within a remote desktop or published application. Use cases would be a Point of Sales device with a serial printer and cash drawer. Instead of having to use extra serial-to-ethernet converters for the PoS software.

Multimedia Redirection for RDS

As mentioned, HTML5 is now fully supported for published apps. Imagine one of those apps uses video sites like Youtube (is happening more often). The RDP protocol now supports the offloading of the multimedia stream to the local device of the end user. That will save you a lot of bandwidth in the datacenter. Also, running high-res video’s from within the remote desktop could be resource intensive. So it will also save you on resources.

Need help in upgrading to Horizon 6.1.1? Contact us!

Besides newly released features, VMware also announced Project Enzo. This will be the EVO:Rail equivalent for the End User Computing productrange. In a later post, I will explain more about Project Enzo and what the recent acquisitions have to do with it.

Johan van Amersfoort Chief Evangelist

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