Re: X on Windows (was Re: Introduction)

[the next to last of the red-hot fakirs <wil@langford.net>]

(summary at bottom)

On Wed, 20 Jan 1999, Matthew Wright wrote:

>I don't know if i'm mistaken, but its my understanding that VNC has two 
>components one as displaying a windows desktop on a linux box (not in 
>multiuser mode) And 2.  It is an alternative to running an Xserver on a 
>workstation. And in this regard it is sharing linux desktops.

Yes.  It accomplishes this by running Xvnc (it's own X server) and keeping
*all* of the state on the "server".  The client is merely a graphics
viewer and an input forwarder.

>It was this use that I was interested in, correct me if i'm wrong but 
>the windows version is something they did later, and is far clunkier 
>than the original unix version(which still gets developed).

Since Windows doesn't work like X, you can't run multiple Windows sessions
from the same machine (at least not with Win9x or 3.x; NT doesn't do it
very well, if at all).

>As far as the writers are concerned the beauty with the product is that 
>its only tiny (less than 500k) (as thin as can be) and a user can 
>disconnect from a session then reconnect.

It is rather small, but keep in mind that every VNC session is an entirely
new Xvnc session (and therefore takes as much RAM as pretty much any other
X session would).  Don't get me wrong, the thing is very nice, but it's
much better if you can get a low-end X server running on the
"workstations" and have the server serve only X clients.  In an
educational environment, AFAIK, you are more likely to see one or two
server class machines connected to many more low-end, low-power machines.
If these machines can run an X server at all, this is the recommended way
to go.

Keep in mind that I've only used VNC in a single user setting, and my
experience with multi-user X is limited to the use of such a system, not
the study or design of the system itself.

SUMMARY:  VNC stores both the Xserver and Xclient states on the *server*.
X stores the Xclient states on the "server" and the Xserver state on the
*clients*.  (I really hate these terms, but...)

If you have a *very* high end server machine, then VNC may work for
multiple users.  A lower end server machine would quickly fill up.  X
works better on the lower end servers by moving a hefty chunk of each
user's memory to the client machines.

Wil

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