Ask HN: Are high performance virtual desktops viable now? The new cloud gaming services (Stadia, xCloud, etc.) demonstrate that we can run computationally demanding graphical applications remotely with acceptable input latency and high visual fidelity. Regular, everyday usage of a PC is much less demanding than running a game, and video of regular desktop usage is much more compressible and less bandwidth hungry than video of a fast-moving game. There's a huge pricing disparity between Stadia (like $5/month with one-time fees for application purchases? Somewhere around there...) and virtual desktop services like amazon workspaces (like $700/mo for a similarly powerful, reserved machine or $22/mo+$2/hr of usage). Do you think we might be moving to a new ultra-thin client structure for personal computing? What are the challenges? |