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As Novell, the force behind SUSE Linux, has announced, the thin client variant of SLES is now available in Dell's OptiPlex FX160 devices, which previously ran on Windows only. The standard Dell machines now have an Intel Atom 230 processor inside, but, according to the data sheet, a dual-core Atom 330 is also available.

The devices have six USB ports, earphone and microphone inputs, two rear PS/2 ports along with VGA and DVI-D output. Gigabit Ethernet from Broadcom and an 802.llbg wireless module are also integrated. For a price upgrade you can get a 2.5" SATA hard drive at 80 GBytes. Working memory is between 1 and 4 GBytes (DDR2 at 667 MHz). With a chassis weight of 4.6 lbs, the thin client costs around $581 from Dell.

OptiPlex FX160, the first thin client from Dell, weighs in at around 4.6 lbs and is just over 2" thick and just under 9" wide.

The OptiPlex series that consists of small desktop PCs and Dell's first thin client, originated in October 2008, with the thin client to follow in December. Novell first announced its SUSE Linux thin client distro in 2007. Marketing material for the OptiPlex FX 160 doesn't explicitly mention SUSE Linux or the dual-core Atom, but does so when you dig deeper.

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