Amazon Web Services has added support for streaming Linux applications and desktops to its AppStream service, which was previously Windows-only, claiming that it will “greatly lower the total streaming cost.”
AppStream 2.0 has been running since late 2016 and enables users to stream GUI applications or entire desktops to a local PC either via a web browser or using a Windows client. Although running applications remotely has some drawbacks – such as latency, dependency on a strong internet connection, and potential snags accessing local resources like printers and storage – it also has advantages.
Benefits include isolation from the local PC and some security risks, the ability to run Windows applications from any OS, and full control of the remote environment. In the case of demanding applications that perform intensive data processing or need high-end GPUs, renting a PC from AWS may work out cheaper than buying the hardware, if usage is only occasional.
GUI applications on Amazon Linux, now supported in the AppStream 2.0 service
Another use case is for software vendors wishing to offer a Windows desktop application as a service. The vendor handles the system requirements, application install, updates and data storage, so users can simply navigate to the application using a web browser.
The dominance of Windows in the desktop world is such that the demand for streaming is mainly for Windows applications. That has hitherto been the assumption in AppStream 2.0, but AWS has now introduced Linux application support.
“You can now stream Linux applications and desktops to your users, and greatly lower the total streaming cost by migrating Matlab, Eclipse, Firefox, PuTTY, and other similar applications from Windows to Linux on Amazon AppStream 2.0,” the company said. Use cases offered are delivering software as a service (SaaS), remote Linux development environments, CAD applications that require high performance GPUs, and remote Linux learning environments.
How much will users save? A quick look at the pricing shows a potentially misleading example where Windows streaming costs $22.72 for a week versus $8.85 for Linux. The main reason is that Microsoft charges an RDS (Remote Desktop Services) fee for Windows streaming, in this case $4.19 per month or any part of a month, and making the calculation for a small number of hours for just one week makes this disproportionately large.
Pricing is based on instance costs and stream.standard.large (2 vCPU and 8GB RAM) costs $0.24 per hour for Windows, or $0.214 for Linux, for example, using current UK region prices. There is also a “stopped fee” of $0.029 per hour for either OS, and then the RDS fee on top in the case of Windows. This means …….
Source: https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/17/aws_linux_app_streaming/