[ale] Something faster than X-Windows but more secure than VNC server?

[JD]

So ...  didn't really want to write this ... google has most of this data and
10 minutes installing and running x2go would let you see it for yourself ...

Tried remmina a year ago - meh. Didn't see the point. Either I'm on the LAN
and don't really need a remote desktop client (X/Windows works) or I'm far
away and need 1 session to get me back to the LAN, from there, remote X works
through x2go/NX fine.

x2go is my replacement for FreeNX (and whatever NX client is used - there are
many).

x2go has clients and servers for all the popular computing platforms that
support X/Windows.  Sadly, that does not include Android currently. That is
the only real issue. A $200 netbook is a nice replacement for a
tablet+keyboard - drop whatever Linux desktop you like and be happy.

No need to use NoMachine's closed-code, if you don't want.  I did use their
v3.5.x clients on both Windows and Linux. The v4.x client never worked for me,
but I haven't tried in a while either. Seemed they wanted to make it easier to
work/discovery with THEIR servers ... meh.

Setup of x2go server on Ubuntu is easier than FreeNX.  It is just aptitude
install. No rebuilding server-keys needed (or is everyone else using the
commonly-known-to-everyone FreeNX keys?). That is a plus and a minus.

x2go client is also a nominal install. On UNIX platforms, it will use existing
ssh keys. No special effort needed.  I haven't bothered to get the keys
working on Windows - wouldn't use that OS on the internet anyway.  Do use x2go
Windows client daily, from inside the LAN.  On the LAN, remote video is better
than any other free remote desktop tool that I've seen - including SPICE.
Audio works too.  Audio works over the internet too.

x2go over the internet is nice.  Haven't tested it overseas since switching,
but NX was tested extensively and I don't see any reason that x2go wouldn't be
slightly better.

I dumped FreeNX after Ubutu 12.04 due to support reasons. There is a FreeNX
beta for 14.04 (don't bother with non-LTS releases), but it had some issues
for me at the time. x2go HAD server-side CPU utilization issues due to an ssh
bug. Be certain to get the newer Windows clients (August 2014) to avoid this.
I saw spikes to 100% CPU every 5 seconds on the server side. Since this was on
a shared VM server machine, the other VMs were being impacted negatively. It
was bad.

x2go has downsides
* I dislike that only 1 session seems possible at a time.  OTOH, connecting to
1 desktop, then using it to connect to others on the same LAN works nicely
(even Windows via rdesktop/RDP).
* the fact that a miscofigured/buggy client can impact the server bothers me.
* font support seems to be an afterthought. It mostly just works on Linux, but
Windows terminals sometimes don't resize fonts as expected.  Sometimes they do
- haven't needed to worry about this much.
* DO NOT USE UNITY - that really isn't a downside.  LXDE, XFCE, and every WM
that I've tried just work.

SPICE is nice for inside a LAN, assuming the keyboard mapping issue has been
solved. It wasn't fixed for my needs and missing 3 important characters just
isn't an option. SPICE is not encrypted, so a full VPN is probably the best
remote solution to make that secure. Sure, you can setup SSL certs - hassle
for a small network.

Overall, I wish I'd switched from FreeNX/NX to x2go sooner for my Ubuntu
remote desktop VMs. Basically I have a personal VM for this and a work VM for
this that others use too. For non-video stuff, it works well.  During the
installfest I showed a few people how well it worked.  There wasn't any real
lag - even showing 7MC schedule data changes a page at a time.



On 10/01/2014 10:08 AM, Michael H. Warfield wrote:
> On Tue, 2014-09-30 at 15:02 -0400, Jim Kinney wrote:
>> If both ends are *nix, look at X2GO. It's an easier freenx than, um, 
>> freenx. good for single connections. Not tabbed like remmina. (doesn't 
>> crash as often as remmina either :-)
> 
> Negatives are that X2GO is not compatible with "standard" NX versions such
> as FreeNX or NoMachine NX, which can be a significant problem depending on
> deployment.  No plugin for Remmina, which is still my favorite
> multiprotocol client (and doesn't crash for me at all).
> 
> On the plus side, if the client limitations aren't a deal breaker as they
> were for me, they do have Windows and MacOS clients, so it's not limited to
> both ends being *nix.  For FreeNX, you would need the NoMachine NX client
> as Remmina is not available for Windows.  Remmina should run under Cygwin
> but I've never tried it.
> 
> This is this multiprotocol client, similar to Remmina, for Windows:
> 
> http://www.mremoteng.org/
> 
> Downside, doesn't seem to support NX and certainly doesn't support X2GO.
> 
> Downside to FreeNX server:  May not work on all versions of Ubuntu due to
> conflicts with Wayland and some deprecated multimedia libraries.  Not sure
> about X2GO there.  Looks like X2GO may have similar conflicts. Refer to
> their FAQ.
>> 
> Regards, Mike
>>