Dell To Acquire Wyse 95
Posted
by
timothy
from the oh-is-that-what-they're-calling-it-these-days? dept.
from the oh-is-that-what-they're-calling-it-these-days? dept.
New submitter alancronin writes "Computer and IT giant Dell said today it will acquire privately held Wyse Technology, a company that specializes in what it calls 'cloud client computing.'"
Dumb (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Dumb (Score:5, Funny)
You don't think this was a wyse decision?
Re:Dumb (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:1)
Why(se)? (Score:4, Funny)
You don't think this was a wyse decision?
Dell me about it!
Re: (Score:2)
A lot of people lost their ass to Wang!
I know, it was a long way to go for the punchline...
Re:How unfortunate: Wyse and not Wang (Score:5, Funny)
Just think of all the Slashdot jokes that could have been...
That doesn't mean we can't still make Wang jokes.
Q: Who was the first female computer programmer?
A: Eve - she had an Apple in one hand, and a Wang in the other.
Re: (Score:3)
An old friend of mine used to work at Wang. He was emphatic about that. "I do not work for Wang. I work at Wang!"
Re: (Score:2)
An old friend of mine used to work at Wang. He was emphatic about that. "I do not work for Wang. I work at Wang!"
An old friend of mine used to for (er... at) Wang. Everybody had Wang word processors in their cubicles. So, people used to walk around and say "Show me your Wang" ...
Re: (Score:1)
Oh god (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Oh god (Score:5, Interesting)
That was the latter years. The old ones were beyond awesome. A good rule of thumb for wyse terms was if you could not flash it, it was old enough to be fantastic, and if you could, its a turd. I have an old one on my desk for embedded work... Hey I've got the space, can always use another screen, etc. Kinda sucks for cut and paste, but perfect for watching logs and boot messages scroll by...
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah I'd say it's hit-or-miss depending on the models, even today.
I've got a lot of s30's that have run like champs for years now. I don't think I've had a single one go bad yet that didn't involve something stupid (knock on wood).
I do have some of their 9650 all-in-ones for kiosk applications and some of the old... 3125's (I think?). Those have been terrible. I just replace them with s30's and similar, and they're gtg forever.
Re:Oh god (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
Eventually the onboard nicad config batteries fail and leak... gotta pull them and replace with a little 2-cell AA battery holder from radio shack.
nicad juice will rot the traces if not caught in time.
Its a storage issue. Left plugged in forever, the battery never discharges so it never corrodes.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah I did a LOT of installs from the Mid '80s on using mostly Wyse 50 or 60 terminals hanging off SCO boxes ( back when SCO was a real company not a lawsuit factory) And I was supporting software running on old SCO boxes 20 years later
When I was an engineer at Altos Computer Systems, the engineers were asked to evaluate an early model Wyse terminal. This was because Don Valentine [Sequoia Capital] was an Altos investor and on the board and he was interested in investing in Wyse. The model we got was a bit boxy/clunky (it predated the later WY-30/55/60's that sold like hotcakes) but we felt it had potential. Eventually, a Wyse terminal was usually paired with an Altos system. In particular, the Altos ACS 586.
SCO didn't manufacture h
Re: (Score:2)
Agreed. I really liked those terminals.
Re: (Score:2)
My only experience with Wyse terminals was my local public library. In the early 90's they migrated from a manual card catalog / checkout system to a computer based one. Wyse terminals were located through the library, and at the checkout. It was revolutionary! You could modem (and eventually telnet) into the system to look up or renew books! They also had a couple Wyse terminals in the back connected to the local Freenet for public internet access.
They built a new branch 10 years ago that had brand new Wys
Re: (Score:3)
When I was in highschool my school used Wyse Terminals which was the most bad and ironic name I've ever seen. I hated those things..every one hated those things. They broke all the time and had to constantly be reflashed with a new image. They were so awful that by my Senior year they were being phased out entirely.
YMMV. I had an admin job back in the late 90s that involved entering information into a dumb green-screen terminal. It was as tedious as hell, but at least the dumb Wyse terminal I was using- some of the time- had arguably the best mechanical key action (*) of any keyboard I've used, marginally beating the late-era Model B BBC Micros. Crappily, they later got some beige box PCs running a terminal emulator under NT that came with some mediocre generic membrane crap. To be fair, I'm not anti-membrane, as some
Re: (Score:1)
Totally agree with you about the keyboard. I really wish I could use it on a PC. I have the feeling that it would be nearly impossible to replicate today, just by the nature of materials and quality that were probably involved in making them. The closest I've found that I've liked is the overly expensive Das Keyboard.
Re: (Score:2)
Some of the Wyse PCE keyboards (with IBM PC like layout) talk the PS/2 protocol and can be connected directly to a modern PC with or without a simple adapter. Look for model numbers 900840 and 900866.
The key switches in the Wyse keyboards are "Cherry MX Black". There are now loads of new keyboards with the different variations of the Cherry MX (black, red, blue, brown...) -- because they have become popular for computer gaming. One of the first, and now most inexpensive models with blacks, was Steelserie
Re: (Score:2)
100% agreement on what constitutes a good keyboard.
I'm rockin' a Das Keyboard "Model S Professional Silent" on my work PC, and I'm pretty happy with it.
I won't call it silent by any stretch; the switches don't click at the tactile point like an IBM Model M keyboard, but there's a pretty loud clack when you bottom out a key. The tactile "give" is still there - but it's a lot "softer" than the M. When you push down on a M key, there's an increasing resistance until BANG, the bottom pretty much falls out of th
Re: (Score:3)
I administered on a network where we used the Wyse terminals as dumb clients to talk to our in-house time (accounting) server. We had about 200 of them, of two different vintages.
We had old Wyse and new Wyse. The old ones ran an in-house rolled BSD, but the new ones were WinCE 4.x or 3.x and we weren't able to flash them with a newer BSD ROM due to the hardware being incompatible.
We ended up buying replacements for the newer model with the old models on Ebay.
I have no idea how their products have performed
Re: (Score:2)
Can't wait to see the rebranded offerings (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe Dell can finally offer an affordable thinclient. I am a big fan of their FX100, but it is priced out of range. By the time you license it and plug it in, it costs as much as a small form factor desktop. Not exactly the value customers are looking at with thin clients.
Lately we've been using PanoLogic Zero Clients. They are basically glorified network cards in a cube. No RAM, Processor, or other overhead that is prevalent in traditional ThinCleints. They are inexpensive and have a good management tool. Its inevitable that someone buys them out at some point.
Re: (Score:1)
Would a Raspberry Pi work as a thin client? You could just attach it to the back of the monitor with sticky tape, plug in monitor, keyboard, mouse, and Ethernet, and then arrange for it to boot over the network.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, a Raspberry PI would work great as a thin client, just have to have the specific agent for whatever system you are running on the backend. I imagine there would be some tweaking involved to get audio/video streams that sync well. As for booting over the network, wouldn't really need to if you can have a small image on the device. The screen is delivered from the backend servers/clusters anyway. I guess upgrading the image would be easier with booting over the network, but not neccessary. This is w
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Dell offered a thinclient a couple years ago, IIRC. It was fairly affordable for the time.
You can find thinclients in the ~$350 ballpark, but that's a bit expensive compared to what's capable with ARM devices now. I imagine you could get them down to $200 and run Android without much problem at all and still have decent quality - their specifications don't need to be that steep, and a Beagleboard spec'd device would more than do the job.
Re: (Score:2)
It isn't about the purchase price, that is not the point. Thin clients should be plug and play--no administration. That is the real savings.
Re: (Score:2)
It isn't about the purchase price, that is not the point. Thin clients should be plug and play--no administration. That is the real savings.
Exactly right. This is why Wyse thin-clients are popular at places like banks. You don't need to have an IT guy driving all over hell's half acre to the 100 branches fixing them. They just work. And as for the endpoint cost, you also need to factor in the server costs.
OpenThinClient.Org and $45 diskless from Geeks.com (Score:3)
I use OpenThinClient.Org and $45 diskless workstations from Geeks.com. Works better than the $250 HP's we have.
Re:Can't wait to see the rebranded offerings (Score:4, Informative)
The point was I think that the savings would come from not having to replace it ever unless it broke - so it would last 10+ years or three or four generations of desktops. The other savings was on the IT side - less management (these things boot up, there's nothing to break, nothing the user can download and infect it, etc) and just having to upgrade the server when necessary.
Of course, most businesses got sticker shock since they had to make huge IT investments, which they were loathe to do - big powerful servers/blades had to be bought, and terminals that cost the same as a desktop. From an initial investment, it didn't make sense since few businesses plan for such timespans...
Re: (Score:3)
The FX100 is generally used for keeping the admins out of the dino-pen. If they're in the same building they can't complain about lag or latency since there's dedicated hardware on the other end to squeeze bits over ethernet.
A hardware solution to a people-problem.
Re: (Score:1)
I suggest you check out evga.com's PD02 client. I have bought dozens of them, and they are sleek, cheap ($300) and identically technically to the FX100/P20.
Cloud? Why don't we... (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
Wyse? Wow. (Score:2)
I had a Wyse 286 back in the day. Now I know what happened to them...
Re: (Score:2)
I had one, too. It was my first "real" computer and I bought it at an auction for a farm equipment dealership that was going out of business in 1991. It was a cool machine with the CPU on a card plugged into a daughterboard. It aso has a 70MB hard drive which was pretty big for those days. I had to pull a tape drive to install a 3.5" floppy drive. I still miss the keyboard.
Re: (Score:2)
They continued their terminal biz for another 20 years and got into thin clients in the 2000's. They were smart enough to get out of the "me too" IBM clone market, right as everyone and their mother was bleeding out cash to stay up to date and fail (386 maybe 486 era, never saw a wyse 486 myself, but we still have a wyse 386 controlling an even older robotic line at work which I get to fix now and then as I am apparently the only one around dumb enough to say "heh I was a computer tech back when those thing
Dell is really scraping the bottom of the barrel.. (Score:1, Funny)
...next they will buy RIM...lol.
RIM would actually be a good plan... (Score:2)
great international client list
lots of gov contracts
absurdly great patents
dell I don't think could afford them
have fun
John
Dell will become none the Wyser for doing this. (Score:2)
That is all.
Dell has lost its way (Score:2, Insightful)
Michael Dell should shut down the company and give the money back to the shareholders
Re: (Score:2)
Relics (Score:2)
Re:Relics (Score:4, Funny)
Wyse is a bit of a relic. What next? Zenith Data Systems? Kaypro?
I'd like Altair to make a tablet. No more of this glass sheet crap, give me about 50 toggle switches and blinking lights.
Re: (Score:3)
I have been waiting for the HeathKit tablet.
Re: (Score:1)
The Touch (Score:3)
No more of this glass sheet crap, give me about 50 toggle switches and blinking lights.
Touch doesn't get much better than manually flipping a toggle switch. Ahh.
Re: (Score:2)
64 toggle switches, 64 blinking lights, and a run button.
Re:Relics (Score:4, Funny)
Because 64 bits ought to be enough for anybody!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
[...] Zenith Data Systems [...]
Hey! I still have my ZDS T-Shirt [inkfrog.com] from when they were supplying the various federal service academies with PCs.
Okay, the PCs sucked. But the T-Shirt was cool.
ZeroClient (Score:1)
PCoIP and Zero Clients have become very usable in the last few years. My current company is using the WYSE P20 zero clients for our contractors. The Wyse nowadays is just a network-KVM for a VM
Curious... (Score:2)
I can easily see that thin clients are something that Dell would be interested in selling; but buying out a company to move into a market is usually something you do if the product is in some what specialized.
Thin clients are basically the most boring single-board computers available(with specs somewhere between embedded desktops-level and weedy ARM SoC, depending on how 'thin' the custo
Re: (Score:3)
not tough to break in to, but now Dell has an existing installed base, some internal knowledge and relationships to support that base, and one less competitor to deal with. Buying this is probably cheaper than spending a year or two building it up.
Re: (Score:2)
They had the best pricing and the integration with VMView was seamless. What's that about an existing installed base? This is about patents.
Um...patents? (Score:5, Informative)
From TFA: "The company has more than 180 patents, both issued and pending, covering its solutions, software and differentiated intellectual property."
Re: (Score:3)
Basically same thing nVidia did to 3Dfx. Purchase the company for its IP.
Re: (Score:2)
You also buy a company if it's a good bargain. The fact that everyone is now selling thin clients really takes away Wyse's competitive edge, so they were probably looking for a buyer. Throw in some nice IP and a distribution network, and an acquisition like this makes a lot of sense, if the price was right.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Why is slashdot so behind (Score:3)
Re:Tactical facepalm (Score:4, Informative)
You will almost always be better off if you have a full speed desktop at your beck and call vs. a Thin Client... However those clients can stay current much longer and at the cost of a beefy server so Admins don't have to do desktop fixes and you don't need to upgrade every system every 3 years.
Re:Tactical facepalm (Score:4, Insightful)
Suzie in Records doesn't need performance, and she doesn't need a USB pot to plug her iPod into, or a hard drive on which to install Weatherbug, or an Application Data folder in which to foothold a rootkit. She needs a fucking terminal. Why run around in circles supporting PCs with Windows and all the necessary infrastructure needed to dick with things that have nothing to do with the business. Use an application server, a terminal (thin-client), and walk away.
Re: (Score:2)
Just because Dell sucks and Wyse sucks doesn't necessarily mean that virtual desktops have to suck. Our government funded institution has Dell hardware and Wyse hardware and the sooner it all disappears the happier I'll be. Meanwhile, we recently deployed around 80 thin clients and the experience for both IT and the client has been unilaterally positive (obviously we didn't use Dell or Wyse in this venture).
If your'e a government office then you must have an RFP process in place. Use it to define a properly
Re: (Score:2)
We use LTSP with its built-in RDP functionality. Our thin clients are in-house built using an Intel D525MW board, PicoPSU and 2G of RAM in a mini-box.com m350 case. The whole thing mounts with a bracket to the back of a VESA-compliant monitor. Next year we will be testing new boards, including the latest AMD low-power alternatives, ie, Brazos.
A dual-core Atom is actually pretty beefy for a thin client, and we pay for it in that our hardware is a little bigger and uses a little more power than your typical W
So, what happens... (Score:2)
So does this mean a wyse60 emulation now becomes a dell60 emulation. Oh the poor termcap databases, how will it ever deal. :)
Incomplete summary (Score:1)
The summary is incomplete. It contains only facts from which readers might ask questions, spur conversation and draw conclusions.
Where's the unfounded speculation?
Where's the flamebait anti-[COMPANY/PRODUCT] FUD?
Where's the troll-tastic open-ended question?
Get with it /. editors, we won't stand for this kind of sloppy workmanship!
wow (Score:2)
This will be fun to watch. Any wagers on how long before they sell this off on their way down the death spiral?
Re: (Score:2)
they just need couple of fat patents from them and bam it's lawsuit time for onlive&etc.
Dell to acquire Wyse (Score:3)
Wyse keyboards (Score:1)