[arch-general] Arch Linux PC as a Remote Desktop Node

[Foxtrot Mike]

On 07/29/2018 10:01 PM, Chris Warrick via arch-general wrote:
> On Fri, 27 Jul 2018 at 19:07, Foxtrot Mike via arch-general
> <arch-general at archlinux.org> wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> Currently we have around 10 employees who develop software using Visual
>> Studio. The idea is to install the development tools on the Windows
>> Server system, and to have all the developers connect to the server over
>> RDP using low-end low-power computers. The server is pretty beefy
>> though. The low end client PCs will save up-front cost as well as power
>> bills. The network backend will not have any issue with the increased
>> RDP traffic.
> If I were one of the employees, I wouldn’t be very happy about the
> idea. RDP will never be as reliable and snappy as working on a
> physical machine, even if the server was more powerful. Developers
> aren’t the best employees to make savings on. Do note that the savings
> will be limited due to eg. Windows Server licensing. Also, have you
> tested it and made sure that all the software is compatible with
> concurrent use via RDP?

Well, the decision to use RDP comes from higher management. There was a 
suggestion to use proprietary thin clients (such as from HP), but I 
thought I could make the 'system' myself with some tinkering. The 
network backend is enough for these RDP sessions. May be the lag won't 
be that bad. If the worst happens,  I'll write all this effort and time 
off as 'experience'.

> But if you have to, here’s an idea:
>
> One Linux user account, auto-login into X. That user account runs
> Openbox (as something more user-friendly), which auto-starts a RDP
> client.
> After the user ends their Windows session, a dialog box (eg. from
> Zenity) appears, asking to restart the Windows session or shut down
> the computer, perhaps with a timeout.
>

Thanks. That's the approach I have decided would be the best, based on 
the  very helpful comments from other users.
One thing though. How can I automatically detect that FreeRDP session 
has been closed so that I can run a small Zenity script?

Regards.