The latest desktop thin client from Wyse Technology is barely the size of a paperback book and is four times faster than the company’s previous model.
Much of the performance boost in the Wyse S10 comes from a rewritten operating system, Wyse’s Thin OS, and rewritten clients for the Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), as well as the Citrix Independent Computing Architecture (ICA) protocol. The idea is to create a thin client that can display server-based applications as readily as if they were running locally on a PC.
“The hardware changes are incremental,” says Robert O’Donnell, vice president of clients and displays for market researcher IDC. “The big news is the rewritten, embedded OS. They say it screams.”
Wyse is the No. 1 thin-client vendor in the U.S. and globally, O’Donnell says, with 43% of the U.S. market, followed by Neoware at 30% and HP at 10%.
When thin clients supplant PCs, the possibility of being attacked by a virus is eliminated, and companies can do away help desk support, software maintenance and patching. Apparently, that’s becoming more attractive to corporate users. O’Donnell says thin-client shipments for the first half of 2005 had an unexpected rise of 46% over the same period last year.
Thin-client devices use either RDP or ICA to connect with applications loaded on servers. The servers can be Microsoft Windows Server 2003 with Terminal Services, Unix or a combination. Typically, the servers also run Citrix Presentation Server (formerly MetaFrame). The thin client’s software renders the application’s screens on the local display.
The compact S10 comes with a keyboard and mouse. For peripherals, it includes a USB 2.0 port and a local serial port. It has a variety of mounting options and can be attached, out of sight, to the back of a flat-panel display.
When it’s turned on, the S10 seeks out Wyse’s network management application, pulls down an IP address from a DHCP server, then checks to see whether it has the most recent edition of firmware. If not, the S10 downloads the needed software from a server and installs it.
The Wyse S10 will be replacing the Winterm 1200, which costs about $300. The S10 pricing “will be consistent” with that, says Jeff McNaught, Wyse’s vice president of corporate strategy.
