IGEL Adds 5250 Emulation to Linux Thin Clients

August 24, 2010 Alex Woodie

German thin client terminal maker IGEL made a rare foray into the IBM i world yesterday when it announced that it’s now including 5250 terminal emulation with its Linux-based thin client. The company, which also includes 5250 with Windows-based thin clients, says the new offering will provide an upgrade for AS/400 or iSeries shops who are still using IBM‘s old thin client devices.

IGEL added 5250 support to its Linux distribution, called IGEL Linux, in April with IGEL Linux release 4.03.1. IGEL Linux is available on all five major thin client offerings, including its UD2, UD3, UD5, UD7, and UD9 series. The company gets its terminal emulation technology from Ericom.

Simon Richards, general manager of IGEL’s operation in the United Kingdom, expects the addition of 5250 emulation to its Linux line of thin clients will drive demand. “This integration provides our IBM users with a seamless solution to use IGEL thin clients to access their mainframes,” Richards says in a press release. “Customers can consolidate IBM terminals with Windows-based and Linux-based PCs.”

Among IGEL’s IBM i customers are United Rentals, the largest equipment rental company in the world. After IBM exited the thin client business, United Rentals chose IGEL to be its thin client supplier for several reasons, including its capability to deliver the processing heft required to power its Java applications, as well as the flexibility of the IGEL deployment software, according to a United Rentals case study on the IGEL website.

IGEL is represented by 63 resellers in the United States, including IBM Power Systems resellers such as Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based Advanced Concepts and Vernon Hills, Illinois-based CDW, and Wynne Systems, the Irvine, California-based company that develops the IBM i-based RentalMan software suite.

IGEL, which calls itself the world’s largest thin client manufacturer, also operates a subsidiary based in Cincinnati, Ohio. For more information, see www.igel.com.