[clue-tech] FreeNX.

[Crawford Rainwater]

----- clue-tech-request at cluedenver.org wrote:
> Date: Tue, 9 Dec 2008 21:51:02 -0700 (MST)
> From: "David L. Willson" <DLWillson at TheGeek.NU>
> 
>> Anyone know of ANY remote access applications on Linux or OSX that do
>> this that easily?  Just curious.  Not trolling.
> 
> Unfortunately, no, and I've looked hard.  Microsoft's RDP-based remote
> administration and Terminal Services are head and shoulders above
> everything we currently have.  I understand that NX comes close, after
> some hair-pulling, but I've not yet gotten through the hair-pulling
> part successfully.  VNC works well, but is painfully slow, and doesn't
> work well in unreliable networks.  Screen is perfect, but, of course,
> it's CLI.  We need something like it for the GUI.
> 

If I am following the request and question here, NX does permit audio to be played from the remote host Linux/Solaris system through the client.  Have I tried it personally, no since we use this primarily for servers running virtual machines behind a firewall with only ssh access so that we can use the GUI tools (no flaming here ;-)) for a "big picture" and VNC/RDP into said virtual machine(s).

The problem is though if you want to do M$ Windows to M$ Windows, NX is not an option on the host end.

In comparison of NX to VNC though, NX adds in compression which is why you have a better QoS versus VNC is typically (last I checked) without it.  As I might have mentioned before (long day here and digest mode of the list too), think of NX as a parallel to Citrix with the encryption and compression factors along with the "any end client system" (e.g., Solaris, Windows, Linux, Mac OS X).  NX though just uses the X client port over ssh with compression into the NX client system.

HTH.

--- Crawford
PS: I do get this list in Digest format, pardon any delays in responding.