1

Hey all,

We’re currently working on launching a citrix environment to offer a VDI solution for some of our remote employees. For existing employees, we plan on leveraging the application/browser portal to connect. However, for new employees, we’d like to provide a thin client that can be used to connect to their VDI.

This is a new frontier for us and I was wondering how other organizations provide this type of access. I’ve looked into Dell Wyse/ ThinOS, but I can’t find too much information on how their customers enjoy the experience or what the admin experience is like.

Are there any other thin client solutions out there that you would recommend looking into?

Thanks!

11 Spice ups
2

We use Stratodesk (Self Hosted). We have used it for RDP, Citrix and it has been solid. It works with most hardware and we have tried a bunch. We like it because it works really well and pushes changes very effectively. As far as hardware goes, there are so many and it really comes down to what solution you want to use.

2 Spice ups
3

I know this will not be a popular answer, but we build ours. When we started it was just recycling old workstations, as time went on they proved valuable enough to invest more in, and then COVID hit, boom, need went up ten fold overnight.

With something like the Beelink GK or U series, Lenovo ThinkCenter M series (avg ~$160ish USD) and FOSS, it works out if that’s your thing.

We set them up as a VERY stripped down Debian installs, total control.
You have options for client, we use Remmina due to its easy integration with SSH tunneling.

We send out a office in a box, does nothing but what it supposed to, firewalled from home users’ networks, and will only connect to what it is supposed to period.

2 Spice ups
4

This was the direction I’m considering, I’m just worried about scalability.

Some of our users will be offshore associates, and I don’t necessarily want to be in the business of shipping materials internationally. I think I’d rather find a vendor/service like Dell that we can provide config to and they can handle the shipping and handling portion.

Eventually, we may have offshore IT associates who can handle the process of converting aged assets into thin clients, but we’re sort of starting this venture from the ground up and the overhead of managing this worries me. Do you all find this to be a rather manageable process?

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Absolutely, since they are both very purpose driven, and stripped down, there is not much to maintain on them.

We use SSH for tunneling resource, and secure it with MFA with a hardware key like YubiKey. Their attack surface is very very low to begin with, and their access to resources both protected and very very specific. Not really much you could do to or with one, we cannot invalidate by yanking a key. We pre provision and send to end user, they have to receive FIDO key’s pin as a human (call) transaction. Even if lost in the mail, pretty much zero intel on a device other than one systems public IP which could be gleaned from any mail header as well.

This is not to say commercial thin clients cannot be great in their own right, but on ours there is simply nothing to manage for the most part, they are practically disposable.

1 Spice up
6

I’ve used Wyse/Dell terminals, IGEL workspace, Stratodesk. Each have their place. If you’re wanting to pay for it once and own it, go with Stratodesk. The user interface for stratodesk isn’t as “friendly” as IGEL or Wyse, but it will do exactly what you need to do. Their support is good (i would say great but they are based out of Germany and difficult to coordinate time for meetings however communication is excellent). If you are installing stratodesk on various hardware, they are great to work with for customizing drivers into a build for you.

IGEL is slick, it used to be my go to, until they started forcing annual maintenance fees. Support is OK. They really like their $$$ for support especially if you want to talk to someone via phone or chat.

Wyse is a solid choice for on prem devices that don’t need a lot of customization. I’ve honestly not used new Dell thin clients since the merger.