Re: How do I start a X session on another machine
On Sun, Oct 13, 2002 at 12:12:41AM +0200, Thorsten Haude wrote:
> VNC may have some advantages, but it is said to be very slow. You can
> also not be sure to get every Xish thing working.
<snip>
> SSH is not only more secure, but also faster from what I hear (ssh
> compresses). This is only the natural thing to do X, so I would expect
> no surprises: Once ssh works, X works.
I have used VNC and ssh forwarding, as well as exported DISPLAYs and
XDMCP connections. Over a fast link (like a small LAN), there is little
or no real difference among them during typical use. However, ssh lets
me have a single window on a local X display instead of a
desktop-in-a-window like VNC. In the past I've used VNC instead of an X
server to access GUI software on a server from a Windows desktop because
VNC is faster and cheaper than some win32 X servers. I wouldn't try to
use VNC for doing any real graphics work, of course, and it's definitely
not for playing video, but it works just fine for day-to-day use. Just
don't do something silly like try to run it in 32-bit color with GNOME
or KDE or some other fancy desktop, any remote-access software would
have trouble with that.
Now, VNC is very slow if you're using it to access a Windows server.
Some very expensive commercial remote-desktop software for Windows is
actually just as slow, unfortunately, and you can only do a limited
number of things from a command-line login. Those of us who live in both
worlds have to make do with what we can get.
--
Michael Heironimus
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