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If you did not know Microsoft offered Terminal Services, the material in this section may come as a pleasant surprise. These services are offered through a feature called Remote Desktop Protocol or Remote Display Protocol (RDP), which can interact with an open source project called rdesktop . Thus, rdesktop provides the tools Linux needs to run Microsoft Windows software applications natively from NT 4.0, Windows 2000 Server, XP Pro, and Windows Server 2003.

Few people think of a Microsoft Windows server as an application host. When Microsoft released its first viable Network Operating System (NOS ) , Windows NT Version 3.51 and later 4.0, they did not have such facilities. Windows NOS servers traditionally ran back-office applications such as email, various databases, and web servers. A third-party provider, Citrix , offered Terminal Services through its WinFrame product, a multiuser technology originally used in NT 3.51 that opened up the NT kernel for multiple sessions per system.

Now Microsoft packages terminal server clients for Windows and Apple desktops. It has allowed Citrix to create terminal extensions and offer solutions to Unix and eventually Linux. But through the directions in this section, Linux can utilize rdesktop and Samba to directly access Windows terminal servers without the use of Citrix extensions.

rdesktop and TSCLient

As we stated, rdesktop lets a Linux system run Windows applications that reside on a remote Windows system. It also lets Linux participate in the remote Windows administration available with Terminal Services. That allows you the use of both operating systems simultaneously.

Matthew Chapman, a graduate student from the University of New South Wales, Australia, wrote rdesktop as an open source client for Windows NT Terminal Server, Windows 2000, Windows XP Professional, and Microsoft Server 2003 Terminal Services. You don't need a license from Microsoft to use rdesktop itself (only to use the Microsoft applications). Think of rdesktop as you would a Internet browser, or an FTP, Telnet, or SSH client.

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A Case Study in Using Linux with RDP

As an example of the benefits of using Linux as a remote desktop, this author set up Microsoft Terminal Services for a workgroup needing access to Exchange Server. We utilized Windows 2003 with Outlook 2000 as the primary application. This allowed our engineers to reply to meeting requests and use the enterprise scheduling system. It also allowed a secretary to manage department personnel's calendars.

Previously, the IT department had purchased laptops for each engineer for the sole purpose of accessing Outlook for meeting management and scheduling. Each laptop cost the department approximately $4,000. Eventually, therefore, the IT department decided to reprovision the laptops to the sales department while setting up a workgroup server for the engineers.

In the new configuration, the workgroup server ran Terminal Services, licensing services, and WINS. Each Linux computer ran Samba and enabled WINS client in its Samba configuration file. The workgroup server utilized local accounts for the department personnel.

Once we could resolve NetBIOS names to IP addresses at the server and workstation level, we added local users to the Remote Desktop Users group. This allowed the Windows server to recognize the Linux hosts and vice versa. The users could then log on and use the multiuser-aware applications.

To use your Linux desktop to run Windows applications, you'll need to configure Windows Terminal Services for applications and remote administration, add the open source rdesktop and its popular frontend, TSClient, and configure them for use. Additionally, you can add another component called Virtual Network Computing (VNC) and access Windows, Macintosh OS X, and other Linux desktops remotely using a slightly different approach from Terminal Services.

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Tip

You need Microsoft licenses to access and use the company's applications. Microsoft requires a Client Access License (CAL)