New ConfGen version online – 7.7.02

I have just uploaded the latest version of my Configuration Generator, ConfGen. The version number is 7.7.02 and beside some bugfixes (as always) I have updated the ThinOS part to support all parameters up to ThinOS 8.3_108 which will be released very soon.

I will update you when this ThinOS version will be publicly available and tell you all about the new features and settings in this version.

New Wyse 5060 client announced

5060

Yesterday Dell has announced the new and upcoming Wyse 5060 thin client which features an AMD 2.4GHz quad core processor that supports up to 8GB RAM and 64GB flash. This thin client supports dual 4K (3840×2160 @30Hz) monitors and provides six USB ports, two of which are USB 3.0 for high-speed peripherals, as well as two DisplayPort connectors, wired networking or optional 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac dual band wireless.
ThinOS and WES7P are the first two operating systems that will become available mid December. Windows 10 IoT is planned for January and Thin Linux for February release.

5060-front5060-back

Wyse ThinLinux 1.02 available

Dell has released the first update to its new SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP2 (SLES 12) based Linux distribution. It is not a big update, but at least you can now use it in some non-english speaking countries and have a terminal emulation suite included.
Wyse ThinLinux supports the following Wyse thin clients:

  • Wyse 3030 LT thin client with ThinLinux
  • Wyse 5020 thin client with ThinLinux
  • Wyse 7020 thin client and Wyse 7020 quad display with ThinLinux

 

Feature highlights for ThinLinux 1.0.2 include:

  • Additional supported languages now include:
  • French
  • Spanish
  • German
  • Japanese
  • Ericom PowerTerm, which provides an effective and efficient way of connecting to legacy applications. This Terminal Emulation package is available as an optional add-on.

Two new mobile thin clients announced

On September 22nd Dell has announced two new mobile Thin Clients based on their Latitude business laptops.

The Latitude E7270 mobile thin client comes equipped with a powerful Intel i5 quad core processor with integrated HD graphics.
e7270
This thin client for on-the-go performance, offers a 12’’ display with a Full HD anti-glare display and longer battery life.

The Latitude E3460 mobile thin client has an Intel Celeron 3215U processor and Intel HD Graphics GT2 included.

Both units come with 8GB RAM and 128GB SSD, preinstalled WES7P, SD-card reader, USB 3 and USB 2 ports.
They are highly manageable through Wyse Device Manager (WDM), Wyse Cloud Client Manager and Microsoft’s System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM).

Dell becomes Dell Technology

After a long legal run, all the hurdles are put away now.

Dell and EMC will finally merge this week September 7th. After this merger Dell will become the largest privately controlled IT company in the world.
Pretty sure this will become a very interesting future for both companies and nevertheless employees and customers.

Synergy Wrap-up

Citrix Synergy was held end of May in sunny Las Vegas and Dell had one of the biggest show presence ever.

But not only having a big booth but also having a bag full of new and upcoming products.

  1. A new Linux version is coming. Dell has fully reworked the existing SUSE based Linux distribution they are selling right now. Aside with this rework the name has changed to ThinLinux.
    ThinLinux is based on SUSE 12 SP1 SLES and has a brand new GUI. Much more streamlined, much flatter, simpler, easier to use and support rich for unified communication.
    Release will be July 2016
  2. An updated version of ThinOS will also hit the market in July. It will include support for Lync optimization pack 1.8 and 2.0 at the same time. Along with that, there are tons of other new features, like
    – VMware Real Time Audio Video
    – Imprivata Bio-metric Single Sign-On
    – EAP-FAST authentication
    – Bluetooth support
    – Citrix icon refresh
    – RDP 8.1 new features
    – Amazon Web Services / Workspaces
    – Proxy support for CCM and Flash Redirection
    – Linux and Windows 10 desktop support
    – …
  3. “Dell Data Protection | Thread Protection” I have discussed this feature already in the last post
  4. Wyse 3030LT unit will get available in July 2016, a cost-effective, Intel based model for the broad market, available with either the new ThinOS 8.3 or new ThinLinux 1.0 firmware, it includes USB 3 and uses only 12 watts of energy
  5. New Wyse 7040 unit, which is a small formfactor, high performance unit, equipped with either a Intel i5 or i7 CPU, six USB 3 ports, support for a UHD 4K display, or three lower res displays daisy chained and much more, like TPM encryption, etc.
  6. Last but not least and also available in July, the new Wyse Device Manager 5.7. This will now fully support the already included webinterface, which was only in preview until now. It will also support Device Configuration for ThinOS, Linux and WES, plus a Profile Manager to assign these configuration per group.

As you can see, there was a lot going on at Synergy. Maybe we meet there next year.

Antivirus and Malware protection on WES based clients

To install an antivirus or malware protection product on a WES based client has always been a hot topic. But why?

Nobody would discuss the need of such a solution on a standard Windows PCs or even Linux or Mac. But for many companies WES is somehow special.
What makes WES so special on this case? It is a feature called Write Filter. WES has implemented this since the beginning. The very first version was designed by Wyse and from that point adapted and enhanced by Microsoft.
A Write Filter prevents writing any files or configurations to a client. If your client now gets infected by any malware, you can simply reboot the client to clean it up.
What works perfectly fine with one or only a few clients, does not work if you have to support hundreds or even thousands of clients. You would have to make sure that all clients are shut down at the same time to prevent re-infection from running clients.
One solution in the past was to install an antivirus solution. The culprit was that you would have to make sure that the new pattern files are stored on the client. Although there are ways to do this, it is not trivial, needs a lot of work and much space on the clients flash drive. Second issue is, that a typical AV solution consumes a lot of CPU cylces.

Dell  has now announced a brand new solution to these problems. It is called Dell Data Protection | Threat Defense.
This is not yet another AV solution but a complete different way to prevent infection. The solution is based on a small programm that consumes nearly no CPU cycle and does not even need pattern files.

“While other vendors depend on a ‘detect and remediate’ approach that alerts IT staff to an attack after the damage has been done,” said Jeff McNaught, executive director and chief strategy officer, Dell Cloud Client-Computing. “Dell employs a ‘prevent and protect’ approach that prevents these attacks from succeeding, and has been shown to be 99 percent effective against even zero-day and polymorphic malware attacks, well above the catch rate of traditional anti-virus products based on malware signature recognition.”

And all this is done with “simple” mathmatics.

Dell will include this solution in their WES7 and Win10 IoT image mid June 2016.
You will see a big announcement during the Citrix Synergy next week. If you are attending, don’t miss to check this out.
I was really impressed when I first saw this solution.

With the most secure OS ThinOS and now Thread Protection on WES, Dell really made a huge step in security.

Xenith is dead – Long live ThinOS lite

Dell has released another ThinOS and Xenith update. The new version is just a hotfix release without any new features. It just includes bugfixes and some new INI parameters.
With this release Dell also dropped the Xenith naming. Xenith is now called ThinOS lite, which it technically was since the beginning.

The HF release is available for C10LE, R10L, 3010 (T10), 3020 (T10D), 5010 (D10D and D10DP), 7010 (Z10D), 5040 (5212 and 5213) plus the Xenith (ups, ThinOS lite) family Xenith, Xenith Pro, 3010 (T00X), 3020 (T00DX) and 5010 (D00DX).

Versions are 8.1_031(ThinOS)/2.1_031(ThinOS lite) and 8.2_017(ThinOS)/2.2_017(ThinOS lite)

ThinOS 8.2_015 finally posted

Today Dell finally posted the newest release of ThinOS.
Version 8.2_015 is only available for 5000 (5010 – D10D/D10DP, 5040 – AIO 5212/5213) and 7000 (7010 – Z10D) series units.

You can find more information on the release here