Alterdesk
Alterdesk is an open-source virtual desktop alternative to Citrix Workspace and VMware Horizon. It allows users to access virtual desktops and applications through a web browser or dedicated clients. Alterdesk is free, customizable, and offers good performance.
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Alterdesk: Open-Source Virtual Desktop Alternative
Free, customizable virtual desktop software for web and desktop access, rivaling Citrix Workspace and VMware Horizon with good performance
What is Alterdesk?
Alterdesk is an open-source and free alternative to proprietary solutions like Citrix Workspace and VMware Horizon. It provides a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) that allows users to access virtualized Windows or Linux desktop environments and applications through a web browser or dedicated clients.
Some key features of Alterdesk include:
- Ability to create pools of virtual machines that users can access on-demand
- Broker that manages user connections and load balancing
- Clients for Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, Android, HTML5
- High definition multimedia and graphics support
- Universal printing and scanning
- Integration with Active Directory, LDAP, SAML
- Load balancing and high-availability configurations
As an open platform, Alterdesk is highly customizable and extensible to meet the needs of enterprises. It can scale to support large deployments with thousands of users. Performance and graphics support is good thanks to built-in caching and optimization technologies.
Overall, Alterdesk represents a free yet very capable alternative to commercial VDI solutions for small to large organizations. With its focus on open platforms, it avoids vendor lock-in issues associated with proprietary products like Citrix and VMware.
Alterdesk Features
Features
- Open source virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) software
- Allows access to virtual desktops and applications through web browser or dedicated clients
- Built on open source technologies like OpenStack and Apache Guacamole
- Supports major hypervisors like KVM, Xen, vSphere and Hyper-V
- Centralized management of virtual desktops and applications
- High availability and load balancing capabilities
- HTML5 and RDP support for access without plugins
- Customizable with REST API and theming options
- Granular user permissions and roles
Pricing
- Open Source
- Free
Pros
Free and open source
Good performance compared to paid alternatives
Very customizable and extensible
Supports broad range of hypervisors and protocols
Easy to set up and manage
Scales well for large deployments
Large open source community support
Cons
Steeper learning curve than proprietary solutions
Less out-of-the-box features than paid options
Limited native mobile device support
May require more hands-on management vs turnkey solutions
Lacks built-in load testing and autoscaling
Official Links
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