ThinLinc from Cendio

For several years our workgroup uses SunRays as workstation. This worked very well – no noise, small energetic footprint, support friendly, supporting dualhead - but it has also some (big) disadvantages :

1. The SunRay server software run on top of Solaris OS. However there was also a linux variant available, but as I know it did not offer the same possibilities like the Solaris variant. Solaris is not too bad, but not supported by a lot of software any more. You have to compile mostly everything by yourself and hope that there are no problems you can't solve. However, it is a very time consuming task to compile software from source for Solaris and for binary only software (mostly commercial software, like e.g. Adobe Acrobat reader) there is no chance.
2. The newer SunRay's (3 and 3+) have some USB 2.0 ports and supports beside mouse and keyboard also mass storage devices. But the transfer speed is incredible slow, seems that only USB 1 speed really used.
3. Depending on your network configuration and your screen resolution (up to 3840*1200 Pixel using a SunRay 3+ in dualhead configuration) the screen composition is very slow and sometimes erroneous.
4. The SunRay hardware clients (and also the SunRay Server Software) are discontinued in 2013 and are not longer supported by Oracle (maintenance until 2017).

Mostly for the last point our support searched for a new (and better) solution. One possible solution that may fit our requirements is “ThinLinc” from Cendio. ThincLinc is a remote desktop software solution for both server and client side. The server software can be installed easily on top of typically linux derivatives and is free up to 10 simultaneous connected clients - enough for most private installations. As I Know,Cendio doesn't offer any hardware with preinstalled client software any more, but since the client is available for a various number of operating systems and hardware platforms this isn't really a problem.

Most people uses their notebooks running OSX, Windows or Linux with the ThincLinc client, but I also test some more exotic hardware. From my point of view the solution works very well, also using very old hardware and having small bandwidth (DSL 3000 @Home). I run and test the thinlinc client on following hardware / operating systems :

• MacBook Air from 2011 using an external screen (1920*1200)
• Thinkpad T61 running Ubuntu 14.04 using an external screen (1600*1200)
• NoName PC from 2002 (P4, 1 GB, Matrox G550DH, Win7) running a dualhead configuration (3840*1200)
• ARM (V7) based micro computer running an Ubuntu derivative connected to a FullHD TV (1920*1080)
• Atom based Nettop running Ubuntu 14.04 connected to a FullHD screen (1920*1080)
• Igel UD3 running a dualhead configuration (3840*1200) during a short trial period

At home and when traveling the notebook solution is very cool. I can run my office desktop when- and wherever I want :-) At my the office I prefer a dualhead and noiseless solution like the Igel I used during a trial period.