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Desktop Multiplier vs Thin Clients

The Desktop Multiplier™ for SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop is often mistaken for a thin-client solution. In fact, it is a "zero client" or a "fat client" solution. Users are connected directly to the SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop computer and each has dedicated video access. This means that in an educational setting, users can enjoy rich media (e.g., streaming media, Flash), that may appear choppy on a thin client machine. Moreover, the Desktop Multiplier delivers a much more responsive user interface, compared to thin clients and Blades. Learn more about the disadvantages of thin-client solutions

Below is a chart that compares the Desktop Multiplier to single-user PCs, thin clients and Blades. The Desktop Multiplier provides significant TCO savings, a very responsive user interface and significant infrastructure savings. If there are applications in your organization that must run with a thin client, however, the Desktop Multiplier is by far the most cost-efficient strategy to deploy these thin clients. SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop combes bundled with a Citrix ICA client and Windows Terminal Server client

Figure 1: Comparison Chart

	Desktop Multiplier	PCs	Thin Client	Blades

Monitors, keyboards and mice	10	10	10	10
Computer boxes required (over 5-year period including upgrades)	2 PCs* + 5 dual-head video cards	20 PCs*	10 thin clients 2 servers*	10 end-devices 20 blades*
Consolidates desktops (centralizes hardware & software maintenance	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
User interface responsiveness & rich media performance	Excellent	Excellent	Poor	Good
Power & air conditioning costs	Very Low	High	Moderate	Moderate
Supports thin-client protocols	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Upfront costs	Low	Moderate	High**	Very High
Ongoing costs	Low	High	Moderate	High
Scalable & allows for staged adoption	Yes	Yes	No	No
Usable during network outage	Yes	Yes	No	Depends
Open platform (reusable, non-proprietary hardware)	Yes	Yes	Depends	No

* Note: Thin clients have a longer lifespan than Desktop Multiplier systems and standard PCs. They can typically outlive several server upgrades.

** Note: Deployment costs for thin clients are "high", owing to the fact that in addition to purchasing thin clients (which typically cost as much or more than a full-fledged PC), there are also substantial server and software licensing requirements to support these clients.

The upfront cost of a thin client deployment can be brought to "low" by retrofitting obsolete recycled PCs as clients and using Open Source software on the server instead of Terminal Services products from Citrix or Microsoft.