[TUHS] X and NeWS history (long)

[Grant Taylor]

On 09/12/2017 07:42 PM, Arthur Krewat wrote:
> Try installing Oracle products on UNIX/Linux without X. Better yet, try 
> doing it on a remote machine on the other side of the world.

Ouch!  Doing it half way across the US was bad enough.  I'd hate to 
experience half way around the world.

> While KVMs like a Dell DRAC or Sun LOM, and virtualization consoles help 
> a lot, it's nice to be able to "ssh -X" to a remote machine and run that 
> installer back to my local VNC server.

(Don't forget the -Y to forward authentication. ;-)

I completely agree.

Also, I believe that graphic console has a completely different security 
exposure compared to allowing someone to use X remotely.  (Via ssh 
forwarding or more traditionally across the network.)

> If I had a decent X windows implementation locally, I'd use that instead 
> of VNC.

I actually ended up going the other way.  X11 is nice when it works. 
However, I found that I spent a LOT of time waiting on X11 to chat back 
and forth.  Comparatively VNC is (IMHO) a lot better at lower bandwidth 
and / or higher latency.

Also, running Xvnc (server) on the remote system allows you to 
(dis)connect the VNC client at will.  Same advantages as screen / tmux, 
but for X11.

> X had it's issues. But it's still alive and well - maybe because of Java ;)

I personally look fondly on the days when you could set the DISPLAY 
variable and launch your GUI application.



-- 
Grant. . . .
unix || die

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