Time to stop buying thin client devices?

[Guest Rob Nicholson]

We're running Windows 2003 Server with terminal services and Citrix

Presentation Server 3, although about to upgrade to 4.5. It's becoming

increasingly difficult to defend our existing thin client devices (Wyse

S10s) for a variety of reasons.

 

I'm very tempted to stop our purchase of Wyse terminals, at least the S10s

because:

 

a) Lack of USB pen drive support

b) poor graphic performance

c) inability to play some media format files

d) much higher power PCs for a very similar price

e) looking to the future and how virtualisation/SBE may change

 

At the moment, users have to logon to a PC in the office to transfer files.

This is an annoyance and as we all know, some annoyances become very

annoying.

 

Poor graphic performance and inability to play some media files is becoming

a problem for us. Windows PCs play video better than the Wyse terminals both

in terms of speed and the variety of codecs available. As far as I

understand it with Citrix, when a movie is played, the rectangle video

window is actually streamed directly down to the client and played there.

The video isn't decompressed, rendered into the video buffer on the terminal

server, recompressed using RDP or ICA, sent down the wire and then

decompressed again. In theory, streaming the video window directly to the

client is the same speed as if it was being played locally on a PC. I can't

see thin client devices being able to match this, certainly not keeping up

to date with codecs.

 

I suspect that if we could solve USB pen drive support by going up to a

higher spec thin client device, the hardware price differential between thin

client and relatively high spec PCs becomes very narrow, if not

non-existent. Here in the UK, Dell have just announced the Vostro range

which has the following spec:

 

o Celeron 420 1.6GHz

o Vista Business

o 1 year warranty

o 19" flat panel monitor (this says introductory offer)

o 1GB RAM

o 250GB SATA hard disk

o Intel x3100 graphics card

o CD-RW/DVD

o Keyboard and mouse

 

Okay so a Celeron 420 1.6GHz isn't going to set the world alight and we'd

throw that always Vista away but this costs £199 ex. VAT in the UK. That's

cheaper than the Wyse S10 and a *lot* more powerful.

 

I accept that the set-up time for a thin client is much less than a PC

although you can speed up roll out of locked down PCs running the RDP/ICA

client with imaging. The energy argument never really seems to work either -

"sorry, no you can't copy to a pen drive but that device does save us 32p a

week in power". You can imagine the usual response.

 

But the one thing that's worrying me most is the changes in the

virtualisation/SBC market. I get the feeling that in 1-2 years time, we

won't be running Citrix anymore as our pure desktop environment and we'll

have moved onto something else, a hybrid maybe. But those Wyse thin clients

won't help us there.

 

Maybe we've just outgrowing SBC...

 

Cheers, Rob.

[Guest Jeff Pitsch]

Re: Time to stop buying thin client devices?

 

What changes are you seeing that makes you believe that? No one can

answer your questions for you but you. You need to do what's best for

your organization and none of us can answer that. If you feel that SBC

is not for you and you can justify it then don't use it. Personally,

every time a new technology comes out people always predict the end of

the world for an older technology and guess what? It never goes away.

There will always be uses for SBC and it will be around for years to come.

 

Jeff Pitsch

Microsoft MVP - Terminal Server

Citrix Technology Professional

Provision Networks VIP

 

Forums not enough?

Get support from the experts at your business

http://jeffpitschconsulting.com

 

Rob Nicholson wrote:

> We're running Windows 2003 Server with terminal services and Citrix

> Presentation Server 3, although about to upgrade to 4.5. It's becoming

> increasingly difficult to defend our existing thin client devices (Wyse

> S10s) for a variety of reasons.

>

> I'm very tempted to stop our purchase of Wyse terminals, at least the S10s

> because:

>

> a) Lack of USB pen drive support

> b) poor graphic performance

> c) inability to play some media format files

> d) much higher power PCs for a very similar price

> e) looking to the future and how virtualisation/SBE may change

>

> At the moment, users have to logon to a PC in the office to transfer files.

> This is an annoyance and as we all know, some annoyances become very

> annoying.

>

> Poor graphic performance and inability to play some media files is becoming

> a problem for us. Windows PCs play video better than the Wyse terminals both

> in terms of speed and the variety of codecs available. As far as I

> understand it with Citrix, when a movie is played, the rectangle video

> window is actually streamed directly down to the client and played there.

> The video isn't decompressed, rendered into the video buffer on the terminal

> server, recompressed using RDP or ICA, sent down the wire and then

> decompressed again. In theory, streaming the video window directly to the

> client is the same speed as if it was being played locally on a PC. I can't

> see thin client devices being able to match this, certainly not keeping up

> to date with codecs.

>

> I suspect that if we could solve USB pen drive support by going up to a

> higher spec thin client device, the hardware price differential between thin

> client and relatively high spec PCs becomes very narrow, if not

> non-existent. Here in the UK, Dell have just announced the Vostro range

> which has the following spec:

>

> o Celeron 420 1.6GHz

> o Vista Business

> o 1 year warranty

> o 19" flat panel monitor (this says introductory offer)

> o 1GB RAM

> o 250GB SATA hard disk

> o Intel x3100 graphics card

> o CD-RW/DVD

> o Keyboard and mouse

>

> Okay so a Celeron 420 1.6GHz isn't going to set the world alight and we'd

> throw that always Vista away but this costs £199 ex. VAT in the UK. That's

> cheaper than the Wyse S10 and a *lot* more powerful.

>

> I accept that the set-up time for a thin client is much less than a PC

> although you can speed up roll out of locked down PCs running the RDP/ICA

> client with imaging. The energy argument never really seems to work either -

> "sorry, no you can't copy to a pen drive but that device does save us 32p a

> week in power". You can imagine the usual response.

>

> But the one thing that's worrying me most is the changes in the

> virtualisation/SBC market. I get the feeling that in 1-2 years time, we

> won't be running Citrix anymore as our pure desktop environment and we'll

> have moved onto something else, a hybrid maybe. But those Wyse thin clients

> won't help us there.

>

> Maybe we've just outgrowing SBC...

>

> Cheers, Rob.

>

>

[Guest Rob Nicholson]

Re: Time to stop buying thin client devices?

 

> What changes are you seeing that makes you believe that? No one can

> answer your questions for you but you. You need to do what's best for

 

It was a general question. I posted the same question on Brian Madden's

website that has generated quite a flurry of discussion. The same subject

was also discussed earlier this year. A product manager for Wyse got

involved which was very helpful to know what's out there and on the horizon.

 

It's the changes in the market around virtualisation, SoftTricity, Ardence

etc. etc. that is causing a re-evaluation of the hardware.

 

It depends upon the company's general IT strategy and attempting to solve

the age-old conflict between user's wanting the same flexibility, speed,

functionality that they can use on their own systems at home against

corporate policy and locked down systems.

 

Sometimes, cost isn't everything...

 

Cheers, Rob.