Looking for Alternatives to Axel Thin Clients
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TechWhiz123
Hey everyone! I've been using Axel thin clients for nearly a decade, but I just found out that my distributor can't supply them anymore since Axel stopped production on September 29, 2025. I've really loved these devices because they were super secure, had easy management tools like Axel Remote Management, and the hardware was quite robust. Setup was a breeze; I could have everything fully operational in under five minutes! Now, I'm on the search for good alternatives since I manage about 230 workstations. I've started looking into options like Dell Wyse (ThinOS) and HP Elite using HP ThinPro or IGEL OS. For my needs, I'm looking for something that offers better graphics performance than the Axel G15, is easy to manage and deploy, supports Telnet and RDP, is affordable, and can handle multiple monitors. I'd love to hear your experiences with any thin clients you currently manage. Thanks in advance!
Answers
We're actually about to roll out 70 Asus Chromeboxes. I'm not sure if they'll fit all your needs since remote management relies heavily on Google, but we already use Workspace, so it works for us. Other than Chromeboxes or books, we haven’t really used thin clients since moving our systems to a complete cloud solution.
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It might not be super enterprise-ready, but you could use my GitHub project, UFTC, and run it on mini PCs. It doesn't have Telnet, but it does support RDP. Adding Telnet is doable if you want – maybe run it from within the RDP session? It's designed to be simple – just a login screen, and you can configure remotely. Deploying is easy too, just write the disk image to your devices. That said, for your deployment size, you might want something more established. I’ve previously used ThinPro for smaller setups, and it performed well, but I didn’t have to manage them centrally.
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I haven't dealt with thin clients in about five years, but we used to be a Citrix house and loved 10ZiG. The cost and multi-monitor support were fantastic! I'm not sure how they compare with Axel, but they were always quick to send out demo units for us to try out.
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Just a heads up, steer clear of IgelOS if you can. I had a bad experience with it, so I wouldn’t recommend it.
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TechWhiz123: Thanks for the tip! I checked out 10ZiG, and it looks promising. I'll definitely dig deeper into their features, especially regarding Telnet support.