Re: X-Windows and PCs

[Tim Sullivan x5830 <sullivan@KENYON.EDU>]

"Kenneth J. Morgan" wrote:
> ... What I'd like to know
> is whether there is any software that would allow me to run UNIX X-Windows
> programs remotely at home from Windows 95 over a modem connetion? Even
> better, shareware? Money is an object!

> There is a freeware X server (remember, in X terminology the server is
> on the local computer) available at
> <http://tnt.microimages.com/www/html/freestuf/mix/>.  They have both a
> Windows and a Mac version.  I have used it quite happily with a direct
> ethernet connection.

I think this is the server software I was referring to in my earlier post.

> When I tried using this over a 14.4 kbps modem with a PPP connection,
> the result was excruciatingly slow.  My guess was that this is something
> intrinsic to X windows.  But it might well have been my not-so-new
> computer; give it a shot.

I'm not sure I would say it is intrinsic to X windows. I think the problem is
the same as the one that causes many people to refer to WWW as World Wide Wait.
28K modems are not real fast at shuttling bitmaps between computers and a GUI
is a bitmap that changes rapidly in time. The situation isn't quite as bad as I
say since the local server can do a lot just receiving commands that say things
like "the mouse is now at location such-and-such".

Lets hope we don't have to wait to long until we all have cheap, fast,
connections to our homes.

> --James McLean
> jmclean@chem.ucsd.edu


Tim Sullivan
sullivan@kenyon.edu