Converting PCs into Thin Clients

Converting PC's into thin clients - a rundown of a suddenly crowded niche
Written on Sep 29 2009
Filed under: Client Software, thin client, Open Source 655 views, 3 comments

by Gabe Knuth

On Brian Madden TV last week, we talked about a number of the PC-to-Thin Client conversion products on the market, and it became pretty clear that there are quite a few products out there. Each of these products fits into one of two categories, so it seems fitting to give a rundown of each category and the products that fit into them.

The Categories

There are two main categories, each with a few different products.

Type 1 - Windows-based Conversion Products

These products live in Windows, locking down the interface so that users can only do certain, pre-configured things. The software can be installed or deployed in whatever manner a company is used to deploying applications.

Since these solutions ride on top of Windows, management issues like OS patching still exist, however if your organization is already set up to manage all the Windows OS's out there (as most are), that's not necessarily a bad thing because you won't have to invest in any other management infrastructure.

Since this runs on Windows, there are no driver, USB device, or printer issues (at least none that weren't there before you installed the conversion product).

Products in the category are:

ThinLaunch Thin Desktop

ThinLaunch hangs its hat on the outright simplicity of ThinDesktop, which I must admit caught our eye at BriForum. Upon installation, you tell it what app (presumably a connectivity app like Citrix App Receiver or VMware View client), and it replaces the shell with that executable. If the user logs out or closes the app, they're automatically logged back in and the app is launched again. Changes to the application configuration are made via the registry, so you can use whatever tool you're used to using for registry changes (packages, group policies, etc...) to make configuration changes.

ThinDesktop (which is also being sold under the same name by 10Zig, formerly BOSaNOVA) runs on any version of Windows at or above Windows 2000, including Windows XPe and netbooks. The product is available today, and pricing is as low as $26/device, with volume discounts after 10 devices.

You can see the video of ThinLaunch ThinDesktop from the BriForum 2009 Demo Lab floor here.

Autometrixs KioskMaker

Autometrixs KioskMaker is currently in beta, but was shown to us at VMworld 2009 by it's creator, veteran BriForum speaker Michael Thomason. KioskMaker is similar to ThinDesktop in that it rides on top of Windows and has a focus on simplicity, although it does have more configurable options. One of the main differentiators is that KioskMaker includes a locked down Internet Explorer web browser that can be used to deliver web apps or various web interfaces without giving access to the full on Internet Explorer (of course this is possible with ThinDesktop, too, but it's something you'd have to set up on your own, not part of the product). Configuration is done via an XML file that can be updated any number of ways after it has been deployed.

The product is available today with editions starting at $25/device. Volume discounts are available.

Type 2 - Thin Client OS or Slimmed Down OS-based Conversion Products

The products, while running on PC hardware, are running some version of a thin client or slimmed down operating system. Some products use similar OS's to what their company uses on its thin clients, while others are Linux-based.

These solutions aren't as vulnerable to security problems, and can even be provisioned on boot so that the client is refreshed each time it's started. That way, if something should happen, the machine can just be powered off and restarted without any repercussions.

Management typically involves some sort of additional management infrastructure beyond that of simply managing Windows environments, but in the case of using thin client OS-based solutions, that infrastructure might already exist.

Products in this category are best broken into sub-categories because two of them are made by terminal manufacturers, while the others are made by organizations that are strictly software thin client oriented. All of these solutions run some flavor of Linux.

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