[nycbug-talk] Terminal Server for *nix

[pete wright]

On 12/20/05, Erik Phillips <ephillips at loftmail.com> wrote:
> I don't think its a vnc or vmware type of program.  According to their
> site, it is a terminal server for *nix.  I'm trying to run a few
> diskless workstations and would like to have openoffice or abiword, a
> browser (opera/firefox), email (evolution with exchange
> connector,thunderbird), etc....  Not sure, but I believe you can
> configure xdm to work the same way.  Is this correct?  Basically I have
> my bsd box with the apps I need and would like to have that available
> at another location.  Does this make any sense?
>
> I do apologize for any confusion.
heh, don't apologize this is pretty interesting stuff IMO :)

 (cc'ing talk@ as I think other folks may have some insight on this)

Ahh I get it....so you have a pretty beefy server (some 64bit procs, a
ton of ram and some fast redundant storage attached to it) and would
basicly like to run your app's off it.  got it.

i've tried to go the full thin client route a couple times (and saw an
awesome demo from sun a bit back too).  One of the most interesting
solutions that could be done relativly cheaply was via netbooting the
diskless workstations off a centralized server.  Each client load an
OS image and X into a RAM disk and then access the windowmanger and
applications via a NFS volume (in this example the thinclient can be
anything from a true X terminal to a cheap/old pc with ram and a
pxebooting capable network card).

having said that...i've done a little digging into NoMachines site and
under all the tech. fluf it looks like they are trying to do something
similar to what Apollo was doing back in the 80's or what
Plan9/InfernoOS is doing now:
http://www.nomachine.com/documentation/intr-technology.php
(see distributed architechture)

aside from the fact that they state the server run's only on Linux it
looks pretty fun...


-p


>
> erik
>
> Quoting pete wright <nomadlogic at gmail.com>:
>
> > On 12/19/05, Erik Phillips <ephillips at loftmail.com> wrote:
> >> Quick question.  Any success stories installing nxserver
> >> (nomachine.com) from ports or via package.  I'm just a beginner, but it
> >> appears that all the documentation around this is way to complex or I'm
> >> not understanding it correctly.   Any insight or direction would be
> >> greatly appreciated!!!  I'm trying to educate my tunneled vision
> >> superiors about reliability and depending on the configuration, the
> >> cost effectiveness of *nix, but *bsd to precise.  Lame plug, but hey
> >> I'm trying to gather followers by any means. -ep-
> >>
> >
> > a little confused here, you want to run nxserver on your BSD box for
> > remote management?  I was a little confused by this product, does it
> > just provide a remote desktop (like VNC) or is it more like virtual
> > machine ala VMWare?  If this is a VNC replacement type application I
> > would go with tightvnc...or better yet leverage the power of the unix
> > way of doing things and use a shell ;p
> >
> > -p
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > ~~o0OO0o~~
> > Pete Wright
> > www.nycbug.org
> > NYC's *BSD User Group
> >
> >
>
>
>
> --
> http://www.loftmail.com
>
>


--
~~o0OO0o~~
Pete Wright
www.nycbug.org
NYC's *BSD User Group