I can set up a Linux desktop from bare metal to working customized desktop in about an hour. I can set up several dozens Linux desktops for an SMB (small to medium sized business) in a day. I can’t, however, roll out several hundred or thousands Linux desktops without a lot of help, time and work. Now, thanks to a partnership between Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, and IBM, there’s a way to roll out corporate Linux desktops almost as fast as you can plug them into the network.
IBM pulls this trick up by using the old thin-client approach. Instead of having a full-out desktop on every desk, users have computers that pick up their desktop applications using Virtual Bridges’ VERDE (Virtual Enterprise Remote Desktop Environment) virtualization software.
Even old Linux hands may not recognize the Virtual Bridges name, but they will know its products. Virtual Bridges is the company behind Win4Lin, one of the first and best of the Windows on Linux virtualization programs.