@dafyre said:

@KrisSmith said:

It allows you to deploy and run windows applications using the local machine without having to install them.

Its cool technology.

It is essentially similar tto Microsoft App-V. They probably do things differently, but it's the same concept.

In that it delivers Applications without install, Yes. But it delivers Apps that APP-v cant.

@scottalanmiller said:

I'm not an expert on App-V. What kinds of apps is App-V unable to do.

App-v has issues with drivers , including PDF printer drivers so things like Acrobat Pro, Foxit etc.
App-v's not recommended for Plugins and Office toolbars,
If you want applications to interact (acrobat reader in a webbrowser) you have to pre-defined connection groups to say what interacts with what.

There's a page I the App-v Sequencing guide on limitations and although it seems like a short list, when we started trying to deploy some of the bigger more complex apps we had to start compromising on how they worked or changing the way user interacted with Applications.
We had been using app-v for a few years when we decided to look for an alternative as App-v was not going to deliver what we needed,

I probably should point out that after being a customer of Numecent for 6 years I now work for them.

@Dashrender said:

I'm sure there are uses, but I don't know what they are - when/why would you want this or App-V?

I have a raft of uses,

Dynamic application delivery, We had 300 applications 2000 workstations and 18000 users.
You cant put all the software on all the workstations but the uses want their software wherever they are.

Licence management, You can enforce concurrent Licences, as well as named user licences by only allowing users to access the software they are entitled to

Application conflicts, You have software that does not normally want to install on the same machine running togeter

Application deployment without Admin rights. Upload the package to a portal and its available to any workstation instantly (Adobe CC suite running in 30 sec)

Save on disk space. As Jukebox only pulls down the data that is needed to run an application it has a much smaller install footprint than traditional installs.

OK that may not be relevant to you,
What about Games,
With Steam you have to download that game (20Gb or so?) before you can try it only to discover you dont rely like it any how.
With Jukebox you would start the game, it would pull what it needs to get you going and bring down the rest as ans when you need it. If you never need it.

See, now you have got me Plugging the system...

@scottalanmiller said:

So I should be using this to manage me 1200 Steam games? That would actually be quite handy.

Unfortunately I don't think we can manage your steam games as it is.
It would be an alternative to the Steam service.

@Dashrender said:

@dafyre said:

@KrisSmith How does JukeBox handle app caching? Does it pull down everything live every time, or does it just cache locally what it needs, and then pull down what is missing when it needs it?

additionally, does it work in offline mode?

Applications can be made avalible offline yes. With an expiry if you want to that the App is removed (or made inactive) after a time.

@dafyre said:

@KrisSmith said:

@dafyre said:

@KrisSmith How does JukeBox handle app caching? Does it pull down everything live every time, or does it just cache locally what it needs, and then pull down what is missing when it needs it?

It caches locally so it only needs to pull new data. The cache can be share as well so the second user to launch an application on a workstation will not need to pull data that is already in the cached.

That is something that I would expect. It wouldn't make sense to have 10 caches for 10 users on the same workstation.

True, but many people cant see past the "One user One Workstation" Model

@dafyre said:

Didn't Jukebox used to have a free version for testing, or was that another product I am thinking of?

If you mean a "click here to download" free to test, I don't know.

You can request an evaluation licence that we don't charge for.

@scottalanmiller University with ever changing classes. You get a login storm every hour so its not good to be running 100+ desktops over a network.

Jukebox also allows you to deploy software in seconds rather than minutes of hours
( The full adobe CS suite took several hours to do an automated install on windows, Less than 30 seconds to be up and running with Jukebox)

@scottalanmiller said:

@KrisSmith said:

Anyone whoo has ever tried to "manage" a linux desktop estate will appreciate that...

I have, never had issues with it. And that was before tools like Ansible. Linux desktops are actually pretty easy to manage (he says from his Linux desktop.)

Fair enough.

The desktops at my old place needed to have different software on them each and every hour so we were back to trying to cram everything on one machine or have different rooms for different software.

@KrisSmith Of course thats the Current product, Delivering Windows software. The Article linked at the top is about bringing the same technology to Linux. Anyone whoo has ever tried to "manage" a linux desktop estate will appreciate that...

@dafyre said:

@KrisSmith said:

@dafyre said:

@KrisSmith How does JukeBox handle app caching? Does it pull down everything live every time, or does it just cache locally what it needs, and then pull down what is missing when it needs it?

It caches locally so it only needs to pull new data. The cache can be share as well so the second user to launch an application on a workstation will not need to pull data that is already in the cached.

That is something that I would expect. It wouldn't make sense to have 10 caches for 10 users on the same workstation.

True, but many people cant see past the "One user One Workstation" Model

@dafyre said:

@KrisSmith How does JukeBox handle app caching? Does it pull down everything live every time, or does it just cache locally what it needs, and then pull down what is missing when it needs it?

It caches locally so it only needs to pull new data. The cache can be share as well so the second user to launch an application on a workstation will not need to pull data that is already in the cached.

@Dashrender said:

@dafyre said:

@KrisSmith How does JukeBox handle app caching? Does it pull down everything live every time, or does it just cache locally what it needs, and then pull down what is missing when it needs it?

additionally, does it work in offline mode?

Applications can be made avalible offline yes. With an expiry if you want to that the App is removed (or made inactive) after a time.

@scottalanmiller said:

So I should be using this to manage me 1200 Steam games? That would actually be quite handy.

Unfortunately I don't think we can manage your steam games as it is.
It would be an alternative to the Steam service.

@Dashrender said:

I'm sure there are uses, but I don't know what they are - when/why would you want this or App-V?

I have a raft of uses,

Dynamic application delivery, We had 300 applications 2000 workstations and 18000 users.
You cant put all the software on all the workstations but the uses want their software wherever they are.

Licence management, You can enforce concurrent Licences, as well as named user licences by only allowing users to access the software they are entitled to

Application conflicts, You have software that does not normally want to install on the same machine running togeter

Application deployment without Admin rights. Upload the package to a portal and its available to any workstation instantly (Adobe CC suite running in 30 sec)

Save on disk space. As Jukebox only pulls down the data that is needed to run an application it has a much smaller install footprint than traditional installs.

OK that may not be relevant to you,
What about Games,
With Steam you have to download that game (20Gb or so?) before you can try it only to discover you dont rely like it any how.
With Jukebox you would start the game, it would pull what it needs to get you going and bring down the rest as ans when you need it. If you never need it.

See, now you have got me Plugging the system...

@Dashrender said:

@dafyre said:

@KrisSmith said:

@scottalanmiller said:

I'm not an expert on App-V. What kinds of apps is App-V unable to do.

App-v has issues with drivers , including PDF printer drivers so things like Acrobat Pro, Foxit etc.
App-v's not recommended for Plugins and Office toolbars,
If you want applications to interact (acrobat reader in a webbrowser) you have to pre-defined connection groups to say what interacts with what.

There's a page I the App-v Sequencing guide on limitations and although it seems like a short list, when we started trying to deploy some of the bigger more complex apps we had to start compromising on how they worked or changing the way user interacted with Applications.
We had been using app-v for a few years when we decided to look for an alternative as App-v was not going to deliver what we needed,

What @KrisSmith has said is dead on accurate. In my testing some things worked well (Office 2013), but many things were actually too slow to use for some reason or another.

I probably should point out that after being a customer of Numecent for 6 years I now work for them.

cough shameless plug cough

was it slow because it had to be downloaded each and every time? Yeah with something like Office I'm not surprised, Office is huge!.

Shouldn't be downloading every time, App-v has a local Cache. There are just some things It cant do (Office is one of the ones its good at)

We actually pull in the data as its needed so you can get an application up and running with <10% of the install footprint (depending on the App)