Remote Worker Edition
Table of Contents
General Information
The Remote Worker Edition is meant to provide a secure connection for your employees to access enterprise resources in your data centers and cloud tenants. You will notice a minimal install is used to reduce the download size, boot times and attack surface of the image.
The GA version of the image shown below includes all clients and packages. For a better user experience, we recommend only including what is needed for your specific use-case. SAEOS has been working closely with our OEM partners and has already provided custom versions to customers. Ask your OEM or VAR to reach out to us to customize the image for your company.
Connecting Wireless
Once booted, users will see the default Ubuntu desktop. At this point, users should connect to a network either by plugging in or configuring a wireless network. To join a wireless network, click the menu in the top right of the screen, click Wi-Fi Not Connected and then Select Network.
Once you select your network, enter your wireless password and then click connect.
The Dock
Once connected, users have a number of options, depending on your enterprise remote access solution. Users will find most critical applications pinned to the Dock as favorites on the left of the screen.
The dock can be moved to a different location to work better with your screen size.
Collaboration Suite Access
If you allow your employees to access collaboration suites outside of the office or through a presentation layer such as Citrix or VMware View, we have included apps to help offload the multimedia processing overhead from your back-end servers.
If your company uses G-Suite, Firefox may be the only application needed. Companies all-in on Office 365 may be in a similar situation. We have also included the native Teams client for a better chat and video conferencing experience.
Although Zoom supports attending meetings through browsers, a Zoom client is also included for attending meetings more seamlessly. Webex supports hosting and attending meetings from Firefox directly, no client needed.
VPN clients
For those enterprises requiring VPN connectivity to access resources, we have included native VPN clients from OEMs that provide them. They are listed below in alphabetical order.
Aviatrix
The Aviatrix VPN can be activated from the dock. Aviatrix profiles are loaded from OpenVPN files. Users can download the OVPN file with Firefox and then import it here.
Cisco
Anyconnect customers can find the client in the dock and enter the remote access URL in the client.
Fortinet
Fortinet's Forticlient can be accessed either from the dock or in the tray on the top right of the screen.
Palo Alto
The GlobalProtect client is accessed from the tray only. To access it, double click on the tray icon.
Opensource Plugins
Along with the proprietary VPN clients above, we have included a number of popular opensource VPN plugins, such as VPNC. If you prefer, these plugins can be used in place of the proprietary clients, but also provide connectivity to OpenVPN, Juniper, Netscreen and Sonicwall appliances. SSL and Standard IPsec VPNs can also be made here, just click the plugin that best serves your needs.
Application Presentation
Remote and virtual desktop clients are available from Amazon, Citrix and VMware.
Amazon Workspaces
Citrix
VMware Horizon Client
The VMware client is configured with USB passthrough, virtual printing and client drive redirection all disabled. We leverage the host machine for a better multi-media and Skype experience inside virtual desktops by enabling multi-media redirection, media provider and real-time audio in the VMware client. Smart card authentication is also enabled. If your virtual desktops are configured to take advantage of these features, this image is ready.
Other Remote Access Protocols
Out of the box, Ubuntu comes with a package named Remmina. While not pinned to the dock, you can find it under other applications. Remmina provides native RDP, VNC and SSH access if needed and allowed by your remote access solution.
Credits and Help
To access this page and read more about those who contributed to this image, click the Credits and Help application favorite in the dock.
Walkthrough Video
Below is a 5 minute video (with audio) that covers v1.2 of the Remote Worker Edition. Updates have been made to the image since this video, but they do not impact the material covered.