booting a remote x server off the lan from windows

kraylus · l33t Joined: 07 Jun 2002 Posts: 648 Location: ft.worth.tx

im still trying to get my wife to switch to linux and she's honestly looking for a good reason to now that i've shown her fuckmicrosoft.com and she's read the article on why exactly everyone hates them so much (not necessarily because of their software performance.)

she wants to use linux because she likes the idea of stability but she's deathly afraid having to learn a new OS with all new apps. she really likes her paint shop pro and internet explorer w/ outlook express. they're easy to use, and they don't give her any problems. she does a lot of web dev and she's quite good at it. i can't say that i blame her. she's quite comfy in her microsoft world because windows hasnt really given her many problems. she needs the ability to run flash apps as well (something linux isnt fully able to do.)

sooo... what i'd like to be able to do is setup an X server on my box for my wife to be able to login from her windows box. i heard that this was possible through something called cygwin(?). i figured i'd enable her to try out an X interface and play around with all the nifty apps without having to lose her current setup. if/when she decided that she was comfortable with the linux gui, maybe she'd switch over....

she won't let me touch her pc, so i figure this is the only other option. the last job i had with internet america used a boot diskette that booted freebsd off the disk and connected to a citrix server which loaded windows terminal server under an X client. something like that is a bit extravagant, but that's pretty much the idea.

any help is appreciated

ryan
_________________
I used gentoo BEFORE it was cool.

Don Alfredo · n00b Joined: 24 Jun 2002 Posts: 5 Location: Belgium

VNC
check it out at http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/index.html

there is a server and a client ; both are available for linux and WIN32
the WIN32 client is nothing more than one executable, so you don't need the hasle of an explicit X client (requiring cygwin,etc...)

on yr Gentoo box do an emerge vnc,
download the win32 and just run the vncviewer.exe on the ladies box
(or install vncservice on the doze-box and connect to it from the gentoo box),

grtz,
Fred

infox · n00b Joined: 14 Sep 2002 Posts: 14

Might want to have a look at: http://www.starnet.com/products/

mlybarger · Guru Joined: 04 Sep 2002 Posts: 475

IMHO, vnc is not a tool to really test drive an os and its applications, even on a 100MB local network. the performance is lack luster. my evaluation of cygwin also leaves it below par for trying to get "converts". the best way to try out apps is to have an x server on the windows box, but then you only run applications, no the entire desktop. i'm not aware of any free windows x servers. dual-booting is also a good option. i've found the machine tends to get booted to the default os unless a special application is needed.

good luck!

Naan Yaar · Bodhisattva Joined: 27 Jun 2002 Posts: 1549

Sort of second this. Note: cygwin has xfree for Windows; its performance wasn't too good when I tried it, though. Many of the commercial X servers for Windows give you an eval license that you can check out. Running applications only may be a good idea as you suggest.

LiveCD's are also a possible choice for doing a demo (Gentoo/Knoppix...).

pjp · Administrator Joined: 16 Apr 2002 Posts: 20067

Can a VMWare system with Windows and Linux be an option? She could use her Windows stuff when it 'just had to get done' and use the linux system when she had some time to learn new apps.
_________________
Quis separabit? Quo animo?

kraylus · l33t Joined: 07 Jun 2002 Posts: 648 Location: ft.worth.tx

i think the closest thing that she'd let me do would be to delete one of her storage partitions that i use for my spare docs (i have a small hd) and install linux in that space. there's about 3gb or so. but even then she's quite leary about that.

her last experience with linux was on my iMac with yellowdog (redhat based pos.) it was a nightmare for both her and myself. she's under the impression that linux runs that way all the time and refuses to believe anything i tell her. that coupled with the constant configurating that *i* do... she's afraid that in order to maintain it she has to do things like that.

sigh... it's hard to convince her otherwise. what she doesn't realize is that the configuring and reinstalling i constantly do is NOT in fact necessary. but oh well. one day... one day... i'll find a way somehow.

thanks for the replies, though!

ryan
_________________
I used gentoo BEFORE it was cool.

humillo · n00b Joined: 26 Oct 2002 Posts: 49