If you are using a Linux-based pc or Mac OS X and want to manage a vSphere-environment then you might ask yourself the question if there is a native OS-version of the vSphere Client available for your platform. Today VMware released their Technical Preview of the VMware View PCoIP client for OSX. We’ve all been waiting for this since the release of VMware View 5 and today I finally got to test it on OSX.
Horizon View Client for Mac OS X 2.3 | 23 January 2014
Last Updated: 16 January 2013
These release notes cover the following topics:
Key Features
VMware Horizon View Client for Mac OS X makes it easy to access your Windows virtual desktop from your Mac with the best possible user experience on the Local Area Network (LAN) or across a Wide Area Network (WAN).
Support for Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6.8), Mac OS X Lion (10.7), Mac OS X Mountain Lion (10.8), and Mac OS X Mavericks (10.9) - Use an Intel-based Mac to work on your Windows-based Horizon View virtual desktop.
Unmatched performance - The adaptive capabilities of the PCoIP display protocol are optimized to deliver the best user experience, even over low-bandwidth and high-latency connections. Your desktop is fast and responsive regardless of where you are.
Simple connectivity - Horizon View Client for Mac OS X is tightly integrated with VMware Horizon View for simple setup and connectivity. Quickly reconnect to your desktop by selecting from up to eight Horizon View server shortcuts in Horizon View Client.
Secure from any location - At your desk or away from the office, your data is delivered securely to you wherever you are. Enhanced certificate checking is performed on the client. Horizon View Client for Mac OS X also supports optional RADIUS and RSA SecurID authentication. (RADIUS support was added with VMware Horizon View 5.1 and Horizon View Client for Mac OS X 1.5 or later.)
Horizon View Client Feature Support Matrix
Horizon View Client Feature
Supported in Horizon View Client for Mac OS X
RSA SecurID
X
Single sign-on
X
PCoIP display protocol
X
RDP display protocol
X
USB access
X
Real-Time Audio-Video (RTAV)
X
Wyse Multimedia Redirection
Windows 7 Multimedia Redirection
Virtual printing
X
Location-based printing
X
Smart cards
Multiple monitors
X
Local mode
What's New in This Release
This release of VMware Horizon View Client for Mac OS X includes the following new feature:
Real-Time Audio-Video support - Real-Time Audio-Video works with standard webcam, USB audio, and analog audio devices, and with standard conferencing applications like Skype, WebEx, and Google Hangouts. Real-Time Audio-Video is supported on Mac OS X Mountain Lion (10.8) and later. It is disabled on all earlier Mac OS X operating systems. See the documentation for complete software and hardware requirements.
Desktop search - Users can now search for a particular desktop by typing in the Desktop Selector window.
Reordering shortcuts - Users can now reorder View server shortcuts on the Home screen and desktop shortcuts in the Desktop Selector window by dragging and dropping.
Internationalization
The user interface and documentation for Horizon View Client are available in English, Japanese, French, German, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Korean.
Before You Begin
Horizon View Client requires a Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6.8), Mac OS X Lion (10.7), Mac OS X Mountain Lion (10.8), or Mac OS X Mavericks (10.9) operating system running on an Intel-based Mac.
Horizon View Client is supported with the latest maintenance release of VMware View 4.6.x and later releases.
If you have an older version of this client software, before you download the installer for this new version of Horizon View Client for Mac OS X, take the following steps:
Remove the older version. Drag the VMware View Client application from the Applications folder to the Trash and empty the trash. This step ensures that, after you install the new version, the application icon in the launch pad will be updated to show VMware Horizon View Client.
Remove the VMware View Client shortcut from the Dock.
To install, download the disk image file from the VMware Horizon View Client download page.
For system requirements and installation instructions, see Using VMware Horizon View Client for Mac OS X.
Resolved Issues
Resolved in Horizon View Client 2.3.x
If you launched a virtual machine in Fusion 6.0 and then connected to a desktop in Horizon View Client for Mac OS X, USB redirection did not work. This problem has been resolved in Fusion 6.0.1 and Horizon View Client for Mac OS X 2.2 and later.
If you launched Horizon View Client, started the printing service, connected to a remote desktop, and then launched and quit Fusion, print output was garbled when you tried to use a redirected printer from the remote desktop. This problem has been resolved in Fusion 6.0.2.
Resolved in Horizon View Client 2.2.x
The USB redirection features worked only for the first session when you were connected to multiple desktops. This means that when you were connected to multiple desktops, the Desktop > USB menu was available from the first desktop window you opened, but when you switched to another desktop window, the Desktop > USB menu was unavailable (dimmed). This issue has been resolved.
If you had Horizon View Client open in windowed mode and you attached an external monitor that had the same resolution as the original display (for example, if both the primary monitor an external monitor had a resolution of 1920x1200), if you then expanded the window to full screen mode, the Horizon View Client menu bar appeared on the external monitor rather than on the original, primary monitor, and the toolbar remained on the primary monitor. This issue has been resolved.
Resolved in Horizon View Client 2.1.x
Previously, multiple monitors were not supported on Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6.8). This issue has been resolved.
Resolved in Horizon View Client 2.0.x
Previously, if you used the PCoIP display protocol on some Mac OS X Lion (10.7) or Mountain Lion (10.8) systems and displayed the View desktop in full screen mode, when you clicked on the battery, date and time, or search icons on the right side of the menu bar, the pointer moved to the middle of the screen. This issue has been resolved.
Known Issues
For some printers, using the virtual printing feature to print to a network printer fails. Workaround: In the remote desktop, change the paper source setting from 'Tray 1' to 'Automatically Select.'
If you use the PCoIP display protocol, connecting some password-protected storage devices (such as IronKey USB flash drives) might not work correctly. For example, after you redirect the device to the remote desktop, the password prompt does not appear. The remote desktop shows that a new drive was added and so displays a new drive letter but no corresponding label to identify the device. Workaround: Configure Horizon View Client to automatically connect the device when you insert it. From the Horizon View Client menu bar, select Desktop > USB > Autoconnect USB Devices on Insert.
Because Horizon View Client is available in Korean, whereas View Connection Server 4.6.x is not, if you use Horizon View Client on a Korean system, you will find that messages that originate from the client are available in Korean, but messages that originate from View Connection Server 4.6.x appear in English.
Because the key combination Command+Tab on an Apple keyboard is used for switching applications on Mac OS X, using this key combination has no effect in a remote desktop. For remote desktops that run Windows 7, this means that there is no equivalent of the key combination Windows+Tab for using Windows Flip 3D. Workaround: You can use the key combination Command+Control+Tab for Windows Flip 3D, but you must also press Enter choose the application you want to switch to.
If you use the virtual printing feature and change any printer settings or printing preferences, such as, for example, DPI or double-sided printing, the printer settings do not persist after you disconnect from or log off of a remote desktop.
If Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection for Mac version 2.1.1 is installed on the Mac client system and you use the RDP display protocol to connect to a desktop on a Windows Server 2008 R2 RDSH server for which RDS licensing is specified, the following error message occurs: You were disconnected from the Windows-based computer because of problems during the licensing protocol. This is a third-party issue. There is currently no workaround for this problem.
Changes to webcam and audio devices that are connected to, or disconnected from, the Mac client system during a remote desktop session are not detected by the Real-Time Audio-Video feature. Workaround: Disconnect and reconnect to your remote desktop session to detect webcam and audio device changes. For example, if you connect a USB headset to the Mac client system during a remote desktop session and you want to use that headset on the remote desktop, you must disconnect and reconnect to the remote desktop session to make the headset available.
VMware have recently announced an update to some of their existing VMware View Clients along with introducing much awaited new View Clients running on Mac OS X and Linux (Ubuntu), along with the Amazon Fire tablet device! The updates (v1.3) were to the iPad and Android clients.
For many of us the introduction of a Mac OSX and Linux based View Client is an exciting prospect, which will definitely make VMware’s Virtual Desktop offering more attractive to a wider audience who are currently considering a move to a virtual desktop environment. It should be pointed out however that the Mac OSX and the Linux View Clients, both which supports PCoIP, is at this stage only a Tech Preview.
So what can you expect from these new VMware View Client offerings? The following is a summary from VMware’s press announcement:
Rich Desktop Experience with PCoIP — The new VMware View clients for Mac and Linux bring users the rich desktop VMware View experience to Mac and Linux users. VMware View Clients with PCoIP provide end users with top performance regardless of network conditions.
Optimized for Mac OS X Lion — Designed from the ground up for the Mac and with support for Lion Full Screen mode, Mac users can seamless switch between their Mac apps and their VMware View virtual desktop with a swipe on the trackpad.
Simple Connectivity — The VMware View clients for Mac and Linux are tightly integrated with VMware View 4.6 and 5 for simple setup and connectivity. Quickly reconnect to your desktop in a few simple steps.
Available in Ubuntu Software Center — VMware View client for Linux will be available in the Ubuntu Software Center in the coming weeks, making it easy for desktop Linux users to install the VMware View Client and access their virtual desktops.
Available soon in Amazon Appstore for Android for the Amazon Kindle Fire — VMware View Client for Android will soon be available in the Amazon Appstore for Android, making it easy for Amazon Kindle Fire users to install the VMware View client and access their virtual desktops.
Head on over to VMware’s Mac OS X View Client page here or their Linux View Client page here for more information. The new Linux based VMware View Client can be downloaded from the Ubuntu Software Centre, and Kindle Fire users can download the client from the Amazon App store. This is common if you are playing any casino games on your Android mobile phone, losing support coverage is common. Another link worth taking a look at is a nice write up by Gabe at Gabe’s Virtual World on installing the Mac OS X View Client.
Vmware View Client For Android
Probably the most interesting part of VMware’s View announcement is the inclusion of a client for the Kindle Fire. If you’re not familiar with the Kindle Fire, it is Amazon’s latest Kindle offering which in a tablet format has a full colour 7” multi touch screen and is based on Google’s Android operating system.
Mac Os X Vmware Workstation
There is currently speculation that we could start to see the Kindle Fire be used as a mixed personal and business device. With a US$199 price tag and a colour multi touch screen it is easy to see how this device could start to be widely adopted by both personal and business users. Of course, I have to admit that I have never actually used a Kindle Fire, as it’s not currently available in the UK, so can’t confirm if it’d be up to the task of being used as a day to day device for email, web browsing, virtual desktop connectivity, etc. The reception of the Kindle Fire has been mixed, with some such as Greg Knierman of Infosmack and the Nekkid podcast being quite damming of it (some great conversation going on in the comments of Greg’s post). Either way, with the release of more enterprise centric applications such as VMware View it will be interesting to see if the Amazon Fire starts to be used for business type tasks or will it simply only ever remain a fancy colour eBook reader? Either way, with the attractive price point it must be making a small dent into Apple’s iPad sales.
Below: A screen shot of the VMware View Client running on a Amazon Fire device.
Mac Os In Vmware
Install Mac Os On Vmware
So will the release of the VMware View Client onto these other devices and operating systems be enough to sway a business’s decision to implement VMware View as opposed to another virtual desktop system such as Citrix’ XenDesktop? I’d be interested to know your thoughts on this. why not leave a comment below.
