VMware is collecting protocols.

Last week it made Teradici’s day and announced that it had licensed the software implementation of the Canadian start-up’s PC-over-IP display protocol technology as a key piece of its so-called PC-replacing vClient initiative.

It’s already picked up the Sun Ray Appliance Link Protocol (ALP) and HP’s Remote Graphics Software (RGS).

Now it’s gone and licensed Wyse’s RDP add-ons to broaden the use case of its VDI push, RDP being the Microsoft protocol and so giving VMware access to, say, XP Professional and Vista in a virtual machine.

Like the Teradici protocol – which remains VMware’s primary VDI protocol – sometime next year two components of Wyse’s remote display software are supposed to be integrated into a future release of a newfangled VMware View product family.

View is supposed to extend VMware’s Virtual Desktop Infrastructure to both server-hosted virtual desktops and client virtual desktops so it can ultimately re-create the desktop on any device – including obviously Wyse’s thin clients.

VMware View promises users a single view of all their applications and data in a personalized virtual desktop, a k a “myview,” from anywhere.

VMware will extend Wyse’s enhancements, its TCX-MMR multimedia and TCX-MDS multi-display (think four) widgetry, to PCs and other people’s thin clients.

Since Wyse utilizes the processing power of the client, not the server, to deliver a multimedia experience, it will have minimal impact on the network and server.

Meanwhile, Teradici is supposed to deliver a true PC experience, complete with high-resolution graphics and rich multimedia, including streaming movies and high-def audio, over existing LANs and high-latency WANs.

VMware said its PC-over-IP software implementation would interoperate with hardware-based implementations of the thing.

The company’s vClient Initiative is supposed to include client virtualization, image management (VMware’s View Composer) and offline desktop.