VMware View and Wyse Thinclients?

[AndyGK]

Hello,

We're looking into adding some Wyse Thinclients to our campus, and having them interface with View.

Has anyone here used Wyse thin clients before?

I'm planning a proof of concept for our department.  I found some documentation from an older version of View for Wyse that required a piece of management software as well as the thinclient.  Is this still the case?

I'd be reallly interested in hearing how well these products work together.

[AndyGK]

I should add that we're not really sold on Wyse thin clients.  If anyone here has had good success with a Thin client that lets you boot directly into a View Enviroment I'd love to hear about it!

[bluefluke]

We beta tested the WYSE P20 and its a decent device that allows for dual display.      We ended up deploying Samsung NC240 all in one zero client with built in 24 inc lcd.    The cool thing about zero clients is that you can use the teradici  management tool to manage firmware levels of your zero client (doesnt matter on brand so much) and can auto udpate as well with your unique settings (ie.  view brokers, logo's etc..).    http://www.teradici.com/  PCOIP is a Teradici product that vmware licenses/uses.

[AGratefulDad]

Hi there,

We currently use a mix of thin clients for our VDI here - Wyse P20 and the HP 5470t.

There are pro's and con's to both - but overall, both are good products.

The nice thing with the HP's as they are "embedded" with Windows and allow you to update your client when VMware releases a new version. With Wyse, you are at the mercy of Teradici to update the firmware - last version was 3.5.0 release in Dec, so they do a job in keeping things updated albiet, we are still awaiting View 5.0 client.

HP's to me seem slower in terms of graphic response - the Wyse P20's just seem to be a lot better geared towards VDI environments that want as close to a "desktop" experience as possible. I was pretty disappointed with our HP's, but our staff love them so I can't argue with that - they definatley provide a lot more flexibility in terms of customizing for your environment.

As for the management software piece, it is much easier this way but not critical - but we are a small (50 seats) View evironment here - your mileage may vary.

I hope that helps.

Cheers!

[AndyGK]

"We beta tested the WYSE P20 and  its a decent device that allows for dual display.      We ended up  deploying Samsung NC240 all in one zero client with built in 24 inc  lcd.    The cool thing about zero clients is that you can use the  teradici  management tool to manage firmware levels of your zero client  (doesnt matter on brand so much) and can auto udpate as well with your  unique settings (ie.  view brokers, logo's etc..).    http://www.teradici.com/  PCOIP is a Teradici product that vmware licenses/uses."

The site specifications for the Samsugn NC240 list only "serial port" for ports.  It also seems that a long of samsung screens are designed to be for information displays.  Does it allow keyboard/mouse input?  Our intention is to use it to replace a desktop enviroment.

[AndyGK]

"The nice thing with the HP's as they are "embedded" with Windows and  allow you to update your client when VMware releases a new version. With  Wyse, you are at the mercy of Teradici to update the firmware - last  version was 3.5.0 release in Dec, so they do a job in keeping things  updated albiet, we are still awaiting View 5.0 client."

Were you still able to ugrade your enviroment to View 5?  Though they were stuck on 3.5, did they still play well in a 5.0 enviroment?

[bluefluke]

Here is a URL to the product.   http://www.samsung.com/ca/consumer/office/monitors/lcd/LF24PPBCB/ZA/index.idx?pagetype=prd_detail

It has a VGA and DVI input, and gives you the option to daisy chain it to a 2nd monitor.   It has have 4 usb inputs (ie, mouse, keyboard, printer,etc..) and a network port.   I have attached two pictures with the ports from a unit.   A side shot (usb, audio/mic) and the bottom (network, video,etc..).    We have deployed over 200 of these country wide and they work great, they work as a full desktop replacement.  I forgot to mention they also have internal speakers.   They only need one power cable, keyboard, mouse, and a network cable. I hope this helps.

[AGratefulDad]

Andy,

The Wyse P20's work great in View 5.0 using the View 4.6 client that comes in the 3.5 firmware from Teradici.

Don't confuse the "3.5" as the client version, it's only the firmware version from Teradici.

Hope this helps!

Cheers!

[gunnarb]

Ditto this last post but I want to clarify.

The View client version and the Zero Client version have nothing to do with each other.  Think of the View Client as the virtualized (software) version of the PCoIP hardware chip.  As with most things hardware vs software there are advantages and disadvantages to both.  Hardware tends to be higher performing, Software is a bit more versitile.  I talk about Zero Clients at length in my VMware blog, but I just want to make sure that anyone reading this understands View 5.0 Client has nothing to do with the Zero Client version, it shouldn't matter if View 8.0 came out tomorrow a Zero Client would work on it by virtue of the fact that a Zero Client is the hardware version of PCoIP, the View Client is just trying to emulate that.

Gunnar