What it is
IGEL OS is a lean Linux that runs on the endpoint and stores nothing permanently. After every restart the machine is back in its defined state. Configuration comes from a central management server rather than from the device.
With version 12 the base operating system ships with no applications at all. Everything a person actually uses, the Citrix client, the Horizon client, the AVD client, a browser, arrives from the App Portal as a separate package and updates on its own schedule. That is the part that changes how you run it: an application no longer waits for an OS release.
IGEL OS, the Universal Management Suite and the cloud services together are what IGEL calls the Secure Endpoint OS Platform. None of the three is much use alone.
What it is for
Workplaces whose real environment runs somewhere else: virtual desktops, published applications, web applications. The device becomes an access point and stops being a computer that needs maintaining.
The second use case is extending life. Hardware too weak for a current Windows is still perfectly adequate for this.
Three ways to run it
Installed on the device, replacing the local operating system. This is the standard case and the one that gets managed centrally from day one.
Booted from USB, with nothing installed and the existing operating system and local data untouched. A machine becomes a managed workplace in minutes and goes back to being itself when the stick comes out. This is what makes it useful for contractors, for bring-your-own-device, and for a disaster recovery plan that has to work on whatever hardware is to hand.
On a thin client, which is the classic deployment and where the supported client list matters: Azure Virtual Desktop, Omnissa Horizon, Citrix and the rest.
What to watch
Anything that has to run locally will not run here. Peripherals are the usual obstacle, particularly specialist equipment in labs, on production lines and in medical practices. That inventory belongs at the start of the project, not in the pilot.
