Using XWin.exe to connect to a linux X Server

[jose isaias cabrera]

In the third chapter of "Phil Betts", verse 37-53, it says,


> jose isaias cabrera wrote on Monday, December 03, 2007 11:43 PM::
>
>> Just to complete this issue, I had to delete the account and recreate
>> it. The reason why was that I previously had an SPARC sunworkstion
>> with Gentoo on it, and I rsync-ed all of the files and directories
>> from that server.  I was running gnome on that server also, but
>> somehow the previous settings were getting picked up by the new
>> gnome, which was a newer version and it was kicking me out.  After
>> creating the new user with the same name I am able to login and do my
>> work.
>>
>> thanks,
>>
>> josé
>
> I'm glad you've got it working, but just for the benefit of anyone
> picking up on this thread via the archives, unless you really *want*
> to run a Linux desktop in XWin, the advice to use XDMCP is wrong (or
> at least, it's not the best advice).
>
> The recommended way to run client applications is documented in the
> XWin user guide:
> http://x.cygwin.com/docs/ug/using-remote-apps.html
>
> Using ssh is secure, reliable and easy both on the network and the
> remote box.
>
> In contrast, XDMCP is woefully insecure, overkill for running
> individual applications, and inefficient in terms of network resources
> and the remote host's resources - all window manager operations are
> transmitted over the network in addition to anything going on in the
> client area of the windows.  If in doubt, watch the spike in network
> activity when you drag a window under XDMCP.  Compare this with the
> same action using ssh tunnelling.  At the same time, you can also
> watch the spike in CPU activity on the remote box.
>
> If you are running Gnome or KDE on the Linux box, you are running a
> fairly resource heavy application.  There have been efforts lately to
> reduce their footprint, but try getting 100 users connecting to your
> Linux box, each using XDMCP and you'll soon notice the difference.
>
> Using XDMCP to run display managers also goes against the spirit of X,
> which is to have a single, local display and window-manager/desktop on
> which you can run clients on many different hosts.  XDMCP was developed
> to allow using X on the graphical equivalent of dumb-terminals.
>
> Another "problem" with using XDMCP is that the remote X clients are,
> as far as Windows is concerned, just one application - XWin.  You
> cannot use alt-tab to cycle through your Windows and your Linux clients
> at the same time.  If you connect to multiple remote hosts, each using
> XDMCP, things can quickly become confusing.
>
> Sorry if that all sounded a bit preachy - it wasn't meant to.  I only
> want people to make informed decisions, not make the decisions for
> them.

Preach away, my brother. :-)  I am just kidding, of course.

This is great information and many folks, like myself, are looking for info 
like this one.  Thanks.  I did not know much of these.

On my case, I am the one of two people on that machine and sometimes, I go 
to different buildings and I need to connect from there.  And, since I enjoy 
graphical interfaces than just the ssh xterm, I wanted to do this.  :-) 
Thanks for the sermon. :-)

josé 


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