Linked by fsmag on Wed 13th May 2009 01:27 UTC
"Over time, many people have complained about the X Window system; the X Window system, or Xorg in its current most popular implementation, is the layer between applications and the graphics adapter. It has some fantastic features (like the ability to run application over the network) and some shortcoming.
One thing is sure: it has evolved over the last year or so, immensely, especially as far as 3D and hardware acceleration."
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Member since:2006-01-04
Member since:2008-10-28
Running X over the network can be *very* useful
That was the whole point. When you work in a large organization (academic or otherwise) where you have UNIX boxes running the gamut from Linux to Solaris to HP-UX, nothing beats X Window. Trouble is, most people use it on their desktop (not by choice but because there are no real alternatives) where server and client run on the same computer and the benefits of such architecture are lost.
but one need a local network to get decent performance.
A fast DSL can get you an acceptable performance level. It's not zippy by any mean (and forget about eye candy) but it's usable. Still, there are better alternatives like VNC which support features like Low Bandiwth X, compression, etc.
Reece
Member since:2005-07-06
from wikipedia:
In computing, LBX, or Low Bandwidth X, was a protocol to use the X Window System over network links with low bandwidth and high latency. It was introduced in X11R6.3 ("Broadway") in 1996, but never achieved wide use. It was disabled by default as of X.Org Server 7.1, and was removed for version 7.2.
And the other options are also less great:
NX is not installed by default,
vnc still needs an X server running on the remote machine
with X over SSH, I can use remote X clients from, for example, an ubuntu server without a GUI, and show them on my windows desktop. x over ssh is great, but slow. my experience with DSL is that it is still too slow, so X over SSH needs work.
Member since:2009-05-06
Trouble is, most people use it on their desktop (not by choice but because there are no real alternatives) where server and client run on the same computer and the benefits of such architecture are lost.
It's a very useful abstraction. X11 is a very clever design. It makes crazy things like compiz/xnest and more, easier. The client and server being on the same machine is a small overhead. Many apps use TCP for IPC.
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Member since:
2005-07-06
Running X over the network can be *very* useful, but one need a local network to get decent performance. Optimizing X for networks would be something I should do if I had the technical knowledge and time available.