XPE Thin Clients

[kpeterson]

I was just wondering if there is absolutely any reason to join a XP Embedded thin client to a domain? As far as I can tell, there doesn't seem to be any reason I would have to do that. Also, I am looking for opinions on XPE or linux embedded thin clients. It seems to me that the XPE clients work better with published applications and the linux one works better for published desktop? Any opinions would be great, I do not know much about these devices. Thanks

 

[patrickrouse]

XPe devices are marketed to people that need support for locally installed programs, i.e. TWAIN scanning software & Remote-Scan to support locally attached scanners. This usually can't be done on a CE or Linux thin-client. Any type of thin-client can be used to connect to specific terminal servers, or to a locad balanced farm (i.e. Citrix, Ericom, Provision Networks, 2X...) as long as it has the correct RDP or ICA Client. The client OS will also determine what kind of universal printing solution you can use, as many of these are only available for WBT, and not for Linux.

If you have simple requirements, and Linux or CE based terminal from EBay that supports RDP 5.2 and ICA 8.x or higher is fine. If you need to run applications that require fast screen refresh, look for thin-clients w/ more video memory, as ones w/ only 8MB Video Memory can cause slow perceived performance, as the device can only paint the screen so fast.

htp://

http://www.sessioncomputing.com/thin-clients.htm

Patrick Rouse
Microsoft MVP - Terminal Server

http://www.sessioncomputing.com

 

[kpeterson]

Thanks for the reply, our requirments are that we just have published applications and not the desktop so this eliminates the linux based thin clients since a few of our published apps do not work correctly on the linux ones. Should we maybe take a look into publishing a desktop instead?

 

[patrickrouse]

That's weird, as I think Linux Thin-clients should be able to run both the Linux ICA Client or the Java Client. What client type and version are you using. Are you using the Citrix Web INterface?

Patrick Rouse
Microsoft MVP - Terminal Server

http://www.sessioncomputing.com

 

[kpeterson]

We are using Citrix presentation server 4.0 and we were using the web interface to launch programs. The linux thin client has many issues with any program that uses the system tray, which makes sense since the window manager on the linux ones is only QVWM and it doesnt have systray support. We are wainting to get our hands on some hp thin clients to give those a try as well. Right now we have a Igel xpe and lx one for testing.

 

[patrickrouse]

I've always used Wyse thin-clients w/o many problems. We use 3125, 3150 & 9150 series thin-clients. Like I said, you can get older ones from EBay for not a lot of $$$, as long as you know your requirements. Ours all run CE 4.x, CE 5.x or XPe.

Patrick Rouse
Microsoft MVP - Terminal Server

http://www.sessioncomputing.com

 

[KRPGroup]

Our requirements include dual monitors that according to our supplier takes CE out and pushes us up into the higher end models.

If you run a full desktop can it support dual screens?

Also are there any considerations on the full desktop. I liked the published apps method since I didn't have to worry about user profiles on the server exploding in size. eg saving to desktop, My Docs etc. It just seems easy to control.
We currently do not use roaming profiles for any of our workstations, users know that anything on their computer could be lost at anytime if there is a HW failure.

 

[patrickrouse]

Neoware makes thin-clients w/ dual-head video adapters, that they were demo-ing at briForum in April. Just because you publish apps, doesn't mean you don't have to worry about profiles, unless all of the user's settings are stored in the applications's back-end database. User's Temp IE Files, Temp Files and My Documents should still be considered.

Most people redirect My Documents to the Network Home Folder, set the Temp IE Cache to about 5MB and to empty when the browser is closed, use Roaming TS Profiles, install UPHCleanup and enable DeleteRoamingCache to purge the local profile at logoff when it's been successfully copied to the network.

Patrick Rouse
Microsoft MVP - Terminal Server

http://www.sessioncomputing.com

 

[KRPGroup]

We are running a pilot for PS4 and I have setup TS profiles only for a few applications as you have mentioned but only for the Citrix external logon.

We will be considering moving our current internal desktops to citrix clients at later date and I will have to see how that will affect the setup of roaming profiles.

Does full desktops require more server resouces?