We met with Dell via conference call last week to go over their offering for thin-clients. Â They basically showed off their Optiplex FX160 thin client. Â To me, its more of a very small PC than thin-client with options of adding a hard drive and other hardware. Â It does run XP Embed or a SUSE LInux. Â It also supports an embedded, customized BIOS version for streamed desktops via Citrix XenDesktop. Â I actually like the streaming desktop idea the best. Â Thin clients have always seemed to be under-performers and the end user is rarely happy with the unit. Â But the diskless aspect of a streamed desktop seems to overcome some of the negatives of thin clients and might actually be a viable option. Â
We have trialed on other diskless option – the Pano Logic solution – which we really like. Â The most compelling thing to us about these solutions is that there is no OS image to worry with – nothing to ever need patching. Â It boots into a BIOS and directs to a desktop solution controlled from the datacenter. Â Even with thin-client OS’s, it seems there are vunerabilities and upgrades needed in the future and there is obviously a need to have a management interface for these devices. Â That’s another layer to administer. Â
The biggest downside to me is price on these units. Â With the cheapest quote coming in over $500, that’s a good $200 more than Pano’s solution and that’s without significan’t support. Â The support cost differences between the devices almost rules the Dell solution out all together. Â
It is nice to see Dell entering this arena and recongizing the viabliity of this market, but their first entry is more towards a fully powered thin-client solution. Â And yes, I know I just complained earlier about thin-client being under-performers. Â But, at the same time, you want to have a thin-client that isn’t going to cost just as much as a PC… Â I dunno, I guess you just can’t please me… Â though I do like the Pano Logic solution so far.
Update: Â After posting, I thought I should post a link to the FX160.
