Where is Wyse’s support for VMware View 5.0 and 5.1?

A year has passed since ““Wyse Announces Day One Support for VMware View 5 at VMworld 2011” (archived press release), writing “Today at VMworld 2011 (Aug 30, 2011), Wyse Technology, the global leader in cloud client computing, announced support for VMware View 5 upon release.”

Well, just 14 days later “VMware Announces General Availability of View 5.” The problem is that when I went to look for a new firmware update for our Wyse C50LE thin clients the next day, there was none. I opened a support ticket with Wyse and they said no update was available — contradicting the press release they published two weeks earlier.

So I waited. And waited. By January 2012 I grew impatient and wrote that I was “Still waiting for Wyse ‘Day One’ support of VMware View 5.” Three days later, Wyse’s senior director of product marketing Dan O’Farrell wrote:

“VMware is currently testing its View 5 client for Linux-based platforms. That software is currently in beta test. As soon as VMware releases the View 5 client for Linux-based platforms to production, Wyse plans to support it on our Linux-based thin clients, including the C50LE, on Day One.” (full comment)

Ok. That explains it. According to O’Farrell, the reason the C50LE does not yet have a View 5.0 client is because VMware has not yet provided them a production version of the client. But once they do provide Wyse the finished product, Wyse will release it to its customers.

Again I waited. And waited. I waited so long that I forgot about and missed the news of the View 5.0 client that was released in March 2012.

Then Wyse got my attention again in May 2012 when Dan O’Farrell released this blog post saying “VMware View 5.1 and Wyse Day One Support,” followed by VMware’s same day post titled “VMware Announces General Availability of View 5.1.”

But O’Farrell did it again. Not only did Wyse promise a VMware View 5.1 client on “Day One,” they still had not delivered the View 5.0 client that was released two months earlier. This time I opened a support ticket with VMware and asked them if they have produced a View 5.0 and View 5.1 Linux client and have provided those clients to Wyse and other partners. They had.

It’s been three months since I’ve pointed this problem out to Wyse and they still have not issued a firmware update or a public retraction or correction regarding their promise to offer “Day One” availability. I guess this is what I should expect from Wyse. If I’m not able to get day one support, I suppose I shouldn’t expect them to deliver on their promises.

For the record, here is my timeline of ongoing Wyse disappointment:

I understand that it is difficult to meet deadlines.But promosing that at upgrade is avaialble when it is not, and then failing to post a correction or apology is wrong. Doing it twice and having the issue ignored by Wyse customer support, however, is insulting. I expect better from both Wyse and O’Farrell (LinkedIn, Twitter).

2 replies on “Where is Wyse’s support for VMware View 5.0 and 5.1?”

  1. Hi Jason — Dell Wyse product and technology announcements are based on plans and timelines that may or may not all be aligned to an initial software release by a technology partner company. VMware released support for View 5.0 based initially on Windows and then subsequently on other OSs and platforms across the industry over time.

    As you are probably aware Dell Wyse offers a wide variety of thin client, zero client, and cloud PC hardware platforms that run a variety of operating systems. For Linux, the schedule and timelines for specific releases for Linux x86, Linux ARM and other platforms often differs in availability and in features. That availability depends on integration time and 3rd party source code availability, which in turn affects the availability and validation on any specific platform.

    As far as Linux and more specifically x86 or ARM, there was a difference of about 3 months when support was available for View 5.0.

    March 2012 – VMware Announces a new Linux Client v1.4 supporting 5.0 View for Mac and Ubuntu Linux https://blogs.vmware.com/euc/2012/03/vmware-view-client-for-mac-and-linux-are-now-generally-available.html

    In May 2012, VMware released a follow on v1.5 Linux client on ARM supporting View 5.0 and 5.1

    Specifically for the Dell Wyse C50LE (Dell Wyse enhanced SUSE Linux) the View Client 1.5 that supports View 5.0 and 5.1 is currently scheduled for some time next month – September 2012. Per our Dell Wyse standard practices, we expect to support the 1.5 client on our C50LE when it starts shipping.

    As you can see, the Dell Wyse Day One support of VMware View software releases is both platform- and OS-dependent.

  2. Mike,

    Thank you for writing.

    In both of your View 5.0 and View 5.1 press releases announcing that you will have Day One support, Wyse listed that it included support for the Wyse enhanced SUSE Linux OS, which is on the C50LE.

    For starters, Wyse still has not released a firmware update for the C50LE that contains the View 5.0 client and yet it is already announcing that it will have Day One support for the View 5.1 client? You have the View 5.0 client. It was publically released in March 2012 and yet your most recent firmware is December 2011.

    So in the case of the View 5.0 client, you are correct that you announced Day One support for the Wyse enhanced SUSE Linux OS even thought you knew that VMware had not yet provided you a Linux compatible version of its View 5.0 client.

    That’s not the case for the View 5.1 client, however. The day after both Wyse and VMware announced availability of View 5.1, I contacted VMware Support to ask if they have completed development of a View 5.1 Linux client and if they had provided that client to Wyse and its partners. VMware claimed it had. They wouldn’t give me a date, but said Wyse had it prior to the announcement.

    I then contacted Wyse support to ask if VMware had provided them the View 5.1 client for Linux. Although it took more than a week to receive a response, Wyse claimed that it had the client but has not released an updated firmware for the C50LE.

    To me, Day One support means that all of your devices will support the View 5.1 client the day that VMware announces support for that client. My VMware and Wyse sources have told me that while the release dates of View 5.0 clients differed, that was not the case for the View 5.1 client.

    Perhaps you can clear this up. When did VMware provide Wyse the Linux versions of the View 5.0 and View 5.1 clients?

    Thanks for response.

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