>Has anyone managed to get a VFP application running over the Internet as a Virtual Application yet?
>
>What I am thinking is this:
>1). We now have WINE which along with SAMBA allows VFP to run on a Linux box connected to a Windows network.
>2). There are a number of Linux based Terminal Services type programs available.
>3). I have seen a Java based RDP front-end running inside a Web browser.
>
>Combining all three of the above sound to me like you could run your Desktop application over the Internet in a Web browser and probably consume less bandwidth that a normal Web Database Application would do.
>
>Has anyone tried anything like this yet?

I'd be a bit concerned about the reliability of running VFP9 on WINE - I haven't heard of anyone doing this in a serious production environment. WINE's entry for VFP9: http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=4329

My understanding is the VFP9 EULA specifically prevents running VFP EXEs with just the runtime on anything other than Windows. I believe the last EULA not so encumbered is either VFP7 or VFP6 - in any case, the one before Whil Hentzen's excellent adventure.

So, you may be better off running VFP on real Windows. In that case, you could offer Terminal Server/Remote Desktop Services sessions, or individual VMs configured for remote access. I believe TS/RDS is more efficient i.e. you can get more TS sessions from a given server box than individual, separate VMs. It is also easier to manage and update. Off the top of my head I don't know if the incremental cost of a licensed TS connection is lower than a single copy of your Windows OS of choice.

If you're looking to Linux to reduce costs by avoiding Microsoft licensing, unless you're looking at hosting a lot of desktops it may be false economy, bearing in mind potential reliability and legal issues