VMware is bidding for thin client device makers and independent software developers to develop for its Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, now called VMware View, with a piece of open source code, Open Client, it's first Lesser GPL open source, as best I know.With the Open Client running on a remote device, you can run a Windows desktop, spun up in the data center, on a remote thin client or a desktop running Linux. The open source code is intended for VMware hardware and software partners, not enterprise customers.

VMware offers no support for VMware View Open Client. But it's hoping to rope in the uncommitted or nonenlisted thin client suppliers to its desktop virtualization cause. By adopting the Open Client, a thin client maker gets software capable of tunneling to a host through Secure Sockets Layer; support for two-factor authentication through RSA SecurID; and a command line interface. The Open Client at some unspecified future date may get USB redirection and multimedia redirection to smooth out video display through use of the client's processing capabilities.

Chip PC, Devon IT, Wyse, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, and Novell have expressed interest in Open Client. That means your options may someday expand to run full Windows desktops, virtualized under VMware View, on low-cost devices at the user's location. You could adopt a new version of Windows without upgrading all your hardware, or at least that's the Holy Grail being dangled just beyond our reach.

Google Code has established a project page where more information on VMware View Open Client can be found.