USB stick converts PC to thin client
IGEL TECHNOLOGY is touting a USB stick that converts a PC to a thin client.
The idea is to allow businesses to extend the life of ageing hardware by using it to access server-hosted computing sessions or virtual desktop infrastructure, rather than try to run the latest and greatest software on its aging processor.
Available immediately, the Universal Desktop Converter is simply a USB stick that carries a version of Igel's Linux-based firmware from its own thin client systems, plus one or more licences.
Customers simply plug the Converter into a PC and boot from it. The Igel firmware is automatically installed on the hard drive and a converted PC can then be managed as a thin client.
"By converting to thin client firmware, customers get a simple way to test out and enter virtual desktops and server-based computing, and it lets them sweat the assets they have today," said Igel UK general manager Simon Richards.
"The maintenance overheads of thin clients are less than a traditional PC operating system, so it enables you to get cost reductions at the desk and deliver a consolidated back-end."
The Converter can be used to upgrade any number of systems, but each must be licensed before it can be used. Licences can be applied using the Converter, or centrally using Igel's Universal Management Suite software, which automatically picks up the devices once converted.
The device is a development of an earlier PC Conversion Card that fitted inside a computer chassis, but because the Converter is software-based it can also be used to convert other thin client hardware, such as that from HP, Neoware or Dell, to Igel's firmware to create a homogenous environment.
Igel's firmware is available in three flavours. The Entry pack supports basic ICA and RDP remote desktop capability, while Standard and Advanced offer more features such as clients for VMware and Citrix virtual desktop infrastructure. Customers can unlock the functionality they need simply by upgrading their licence, Igel said.
The firmware can also be deployed using other methods, such as PXE boot or Igel's Universal Management Suite, but the key thing about the Converter is that it makes it easy for customers to test out conversions, according to Richards.
"Customers can go to our site and get a free licence to try it out. We can create a .ISO file for them to test on their own hardware, and this does not need the Management Suite to deploy. It's simple and doesn't cost anything," he said.
Pricing for the Universal Desktop Converter starts at £24.50, which is the cost of a single seat using the Entry version of Igel's firmware. µ
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Or... you could use LTSP 5 which is built into many distros these days such as Ubuntu (and I believe Fedora). Not only do you not need to pay for a 'license' it can be configured to boot over the network (with a network card that supports PXE) or from Floppy/CD/Hard Drive/Flash/USB stick etc and it can also connect to Windows servers. All for free.
So really if you ask me, it sounds like these folks are just selling on an existing technology bundled on a USB stick and charging £25 for the privilege.
Rob
... for a lot less than £25 per seat.
Have a look at http://www.thinstation.org/ which we used to convert 10+ ageing Dells in our warehouse to thin-clients. Quite happily PXE boots and all that jazz for £0.
This article is like one big ad. Is it a purchased and paid for write-up?
You cant beat NComputings $70 offering on Linux OR Windows.
If you tally up the advantages for a corporation or any other organization to migrate to a thin client system:
- Price (very low per seat, or free)
- Cost of administration (limited to minimal maintenance on the server + hardware maintenance on user stations). No virus scanning of thousands of individually-vulnerable hard drives. Virtually no virus risks to the server(s).
- Cost of entire system - can be equal to the cost of the hardware.
- Cost of productivity software - usually very low-cost or free (OpenOffice or Lotus office suite, open-source collaboration software, open-source media and photo editing, and so on).
- Speed of repairs of user stations - involve repair or replacement of hardware only.
- Data backup - limited to backing up server...no more imaging fat-client user stations, or trying to recover data off of fat clients which have been ravaged by viruses or hard disk failure.
These advantages make a "fat-client" Windows-based network look like an anachronism (at least in "smart" IT networks). Just ad a cheap, very low-capacity SSD to existing user stations (or continue to use a fraction of the existing HD, as you choose) and away you go.
No, I do not think that Microsoft is going to make the money it thinks it will on Windows 7 (as more and more home, educational, and business users are starting to load Linux for their "fat-client" needs as well).
Another vote for Thinstation!
I've converted 150 aging Dells to terminal server clients in our call center with Thinstation. I yanked all the hard drives and left 128MB-256MB of RAM in each. PXE-Etherbooting works great!
Most pcs that are old enough to make use of this won't boot from USB anyway, and what on earth is wrong with booting them from a live linux CD to achieve the same thing at a fraction of the price...
A "non-product" invented to fill a non-existant gap in a vapourware market by the looks of things...
Why not just dump the windows bit altogether and run linux on your old hardware, scrap the anti-virus, scrap the windows licenses and get another 5 years out of your hardware... and not a usb stick in sight...