• Re: killing X11

    From Computer Nerd Kev@not@telling.you.invalid to comp.misc on Tue Jun 24 17:15:48 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
    On Mon, 23 Jun 2025 22:08:51 +0200, Marco Moock wrote:

    People still use it because Wayland lacks certain functionality like
    network transparency (you can run X11 apps on another networked
    machine).

    But if you lose the network connection, all those remote apps die.

    Actually their windows just don't update again until the network
    connection returns, after which it's business as usual. Same as
    with the alternatives.
    --
    __ __
    #_ < |\| |< _#
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Andy Burns@usenet@andyburns.uk to comp.misc on Tue Jun 24 09:00:30 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    Marco Moock wrote:

    Ben Collver quoted tedu:

    X11 is supposed to be dead, but people keep using it because
    apparently it still works. I have a plan to fix this so everyone does
    what I want.

    People still use it because Wayland lacks certain functionality like
    network transparency (you can run X11 apps on another networked
    machine). Certain desktop environments/windows mangers don't support
    Wayland.

    Sure, most of us have used XDMCP, SSH tunnelling to start full X11
    sessions, or the DISPLAY environment to run xeyes on a colleague's workstation, I never tried LBX.

    The Wayland people seems to ignore that, so X11 users will stay.
    Does anyone genuinely use X11 remotely? Remote sessions for Wayland can
    be done with VNC/NX/RDP/SPICE/QXL surely?
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Lawrence D'Oliveiro@ldo@nz.invalid to comp.misc on Tue Jun 24 08:11:43 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    On Tue, 24 Jun 2025 09:00:30 +0100, Andy Burns wrote:

    Remote sessions for Wayland can be done with VNC/NX/RDP/SPICE/QXL
    surely?

    You can have virtual Wayland servers, just as you can have virtual X11 servers.
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Theo@theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk to comp.misc on Tue Jun 24 12:56:23 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
    On Mon, 23 Jun 2025 22:08:51 +0200, Marco Moock wrote:

    People still use it because Wayland lacks certain functionality like network transparency (you can run X11 apps on another networked
    machine).

    But if you lose the network connection, all those remote apps die.

    Better to use something like VNC or RDP, where the apps don’t even know the user is at the other end of a network connection. That way you can disconnect and reconnect from the same or different machine, and continue using the desktop session without interruption.

    X2go does that for X. It works much better than VNC/RDP because each window
    is a window on your local machine, rather than everything being constrained
    to a rectangular window.

    Theo
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Bob Eager@news0009@eager.cx to comp.misc on Tue Jun 24 12:13:37 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    On Tue, 24 Jun 2025 12:56:23 +0100, Theo wrote:

    Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
    On Mon, 23 Jun 2025 22:08:51 +0200, Marco Moock wrote:

    People still use it because Wayland lacks certain functionality like
    network transparency (you can run X11 apps on another networked
    machine).

    But if you lose the network connection, all those remote apps die.

    Better to use something like VNC or RDP, where the apps don’t even know
    the user is at the other end of a network connection. That way you can
    disconnect and reconnect from the same or different machine, and
    continue using the desktop session without interruption.

    X2go does that for X. It works much better than VNC/RDP because each
    window is a window on your local machine, rather than everything being constrained to a rectangular window.

    The project is abandones as of last month.
    --
    Using UNIX since v6 (1975)...

    Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
    http://www.mirrorservice.org
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Jason Howe@jason@tatooine.smbfc.net to comp.misc on Tue Jun 24 16:29:57 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    On Tue, 24 Jun 2025 09:00:30 +0100, Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:
    Does anyone genuinely use X11 remotely?

    If not daily, then several times per week.

    Various use cases:
    1) Running a remote browser on a headless server when you're trying to poke at configuration webservice that's only listening on localhost.
    2) SSH tunneling a browser on a remote server to poke at something on the non-routable network
    3) Presenting apps at work from home desktop or vice-versa depending on what I'm
    doing.
    4) Various for-fun nonsense involving old computers, which is only tangentially relevant here.

    --
    jason
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Theo@theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk to comp.misc on Tue Jun 24 21:24:45 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    Bob Eager <news0009@eager.cx> wrote:
    On Tue, 24 Jun 2025 12:56:23 +0100, Theo wrote:

    X2go does that for X. It works much better than VNC/RDP because each window is a window on your local machine, rather than everything being constrained to a rectangular window.

    The project is abandones as of last month.

    Do you have a cite? Last activity I can see is one of the maintainers
    last month upgraded the mailing list system to Mailman 3, which does not
    sounds like an abandoned project.

    Most recent git commits were in the branch of one of the developers
    yesterday: https://gitlab.x2go.org/x2go/client/x2goclient/-/commits/personal%2Foshneyder%2Ffix-terminating-sess-from-sessdlg?ref_type=heads

    Theo
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Bob Eager@news0009@eager.cx to comp.misc on Tue Jun 24 21:24:50 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    On Tue, 24 Jun 2025 21:24:45 +0100, Theo wrote:

    Bob Eager <news0009@eager.cx> wrote:
    On Tue, 24 Jun 2025 12:56:23 +0100, Theo wrote:

    X2go does that for X. It works much better than VNC/RDP because each
    window is a window on your local machine, rather than everything
    being constrained to a rectangular window.

    The project is abandones as of last month.

    Do you have a cite? Last activity I can see is one of the maintainers
    last month upgraded the mailing list system to Mailman 3, which does not sounds like an abandoned project.

    Most recent git commits were in the branch of one of the developers yesterday:
    https://gitlab.x2go.org/x2go/client/x2goclient/-/commits/
    personal%2Foshneyder%2Ffix-terminating-sess-from-sessdlg?ref_type=heads

    I am very glad to hear it.

    I misunderstood a statement on an organisation's website, that said THEY
    were ceasing support. I thought they were the originators.

    Very glad you mentioned that, as I was looking into using it.

    Can you clarify? I see a lot about the client, but little about the server (which I understand is small). Is it bundled with the client?
    --
    Using UNIX since v6 (1975)...

    Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
    http://www.mirrorservice.org
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Richard Kettlewell@invalid@invalid.invalid to comp.misc on Tue Jun 24 23:02:44 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> writes:
    Marco Moock wrote:
    Ben Collver quoted tedu:
    X11 is supposed to be dead, but people keep using it because
    apparently it still works. I have a plan to fix this so everyone does
    what I want.
    People still use it because Wayland lacks certain functionality like
    network transparency (you can run X11 apps on another networked
    machine). Certain desktop environments/windows mangers don't support
    Wayland.

    Sure, most of us have used XDMCP, SSH tunnelling to start full X11
    sessions, or the DISPLAY environment to run xeyes on a colleague's workstation, I never tried LBX.

    The Wayland people seems to ignore that, so X11 users will stay.
    Does anyone genuinely use X11 remotely?

    Yes, daily, for single applications. Usually over my house ethernet but sometimes over the Internet (although it perhaps should be noted, within
    a single ISP).

    If I need a full desktop session I usually use remote desktop (or turn
    my chair round to the other side of the office l-) I gather that can
    also work with Wayland but I’ve not yet needed to try it.
    --
    https://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Lawrence D'Oliveiro@ldo@nz.invalid to comp.misc on Tue Jun 24 22:43:50 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    On Tue, 24 Jun 2025 16:29:57 -0000 (UTC), Jason Howe wrote:

    On Tue, 24 Jun 2025 09:00:30 +0100, Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk>
    wrote:

    Does anyone genuinely use X11 remotely?

    If not daily, then several times per week.

    Various use cases:
    1) Running a remote browser on a headless server when you're trying to
    poke at configuration webservice that's only listening on localhost.
    2) SSH tunneling a browser on a remote server to poke at something on
    the non-routable network

    Do these two via an SSH tunnel. Because passing HTTP/HTTPS through the SSH connection would be quicker than passing across entire GUI screens.

    3) Presenting apps at work from home desktop or
    vice-versa depending on what I'm doing.

    Something like VNC or RDP would be more convenient for this purpose.
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Theo@theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk to comp.misc on Wed Jun 25 10:54:53 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    Bob Eager <news0009@eager.cx> wrote:
    Very glad you mentioned that, as I was looking into using it.

    Can you clarify? I see a lot about the client, but little about the server (which I understand is small). Is it bundled with the client?

    No, it's a separate package. On an Ubuntu server:

    $ sudo apt install x2goserver

    on a client:

    $ sudo apt install x2goclient
    $ x2goclient

    which pops up a GUI. Create a new connection for 'server.example.com',
    leave everything else the same. It connects via SSH.

    You probably want to fiddle with the 'Session type' options as by default it starts a new KDE desktop for me. Usually I switch that to 'Single
    application' and 'Terminal' so I get a terminal window and can then launch
    new windows from there. eg if I run 'xclock' I get the clock in a new
    window that operates like all my local windows.

    It's a bit crashy, but often when it crashes you can restart the connection, hit 'resume' and all your windows reappear. That can also happen if your network drops, you need to reconnect to get them back. It's really handy
    for laptops where you can leave something running on the server, suspend the laptop, and then come back later.

    (hmm, I wonder if it supports mosh which reconnects seamlessly for SSH...)

    Theo
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From candycanearter07@candycanearter07@candycanearter07.nomail.afraid to comp.misc on Thu Jun 26 16:10:03 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote at 11:56 this Tuesday (GMT):
    Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
    On Mon, 23 Jun 2025 22:08:51 +0200, Marco Moock wrote:

    People still use it because Wayland lacks certain functionality like
    network transparency (you can run X11 apps on another networked
    machine).

    But if you lose the network connection, all those remote apps die.

    Better to use something like VNC or RDP, where the apps don’t even know >> the user is at the other end of a network connection. That way you can
    disconnect and reconnect from the same or different machine, and continue >> using the desktop session without interruption.

    X2go does that for X. It works much better than VNC/RDP because each window is a window on your local machine, rather than everything being constrained to a rectangular window.

    Theo


    Very cool program, thanks!
    --
    user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2