On Thu, Jan 20, 2011 at 3:37 PM, Matt Graham <danceswithcrows@usa.net> wrote:

From: gk <gm5729@gmail.com>
[snip]
> I'm wondering [if a GUI Emacs can] be backgrounded like Screen or
> Tmux and then reattached if something needs to be done remotely.

Sort of, but it's not great in most circumstances. If you can deal with
having 2 X servers allow TCP, and compiling and running xmove, you can take an
X app using the Display of one box, then move it to the Display of another
box. The downside is that graphics performance slows to a crawl for just
about everything, especially programs using GTK for some reason.

Running a VNC server like TightVNC is a bit faster, and is better for many
uses since you don't need X and all its baggage, just a VNC client, which is
available for many platforms. It's still slower than I'd like, and you can
get odd problems like keys getting stuckkkkkkk.

The fastest remote-access GUI I've used across a slow link is NXServer and
NXClient. This is not Free speech, but it's free beer. If you really need it
to be fast and accessible from anywhere, though, screen plus your favorite
console editor is still the best choice.

Comments, suggestions, and flying attack porcupines welcome.

Great post!

I fully agree that VNC is vastly superior in speed alone to the full blown X of our old Sun/Linux (Dot Com startup - dial up ISP administration) days, with all it's snafus (ever had your X session highjacked by the Support staff (you managed)? No? I have..... [very funny you guys])...

However, our concept of speed cannot be considered without also, considering, in a non-linear way, security? We assume that you architect OSI security protection (VLAN exclusion or strict network switch port ACL controls) since VNC password exchange can easily be snooped, not to mention all command intercepted!

X is incredibly insecure and network taxing, as well as limited. And SSH with screen, with console editor is better, although still MITM able (and who limits SSH between servers and the support staff? http://www.signedness.org/tools/

SSLStrip will take your local https back to text, not that you are using webmin or anything?

But, yes, we like it fast, from our slow Cox Wifi connections, which can trivially be brute forced by our neighbor kids....hopefully they won't get a clue what all those root Nix commands mean?

--
Matt G / Dances With Crows
The Crow202 Blog: http://crow202.org/wordpress/
There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see

---------------------------------------------------
PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss