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On the other hand, this works increasingly poorly as most desktop environments and software assumes there is no network involved (for example, last time I tried

On the other hand, this works increasingly poorly as most desktop environments and software assumes there is no network involved (for example, last time I tried running Firefox over a forwarded X session I got a bunch of errors about a broken GL context). And you can do the same thing, with usually better results, by using VNC instead (and there are indeed VNC servers for Wayland, for example wayvnc).

ajb 4y ago
Just had to use Firefox remotely (to use WeTransfer to ship a giant file, they dropped support for their cli, grr), and had exactly this issue - it works incredibly slowly over X over SSH. In the end had to use vnc over SSH. (Note that tightvncserver seems to silently ignore the -localhost option now, which means it's completely insecure to run on an internet connected machine. Tigervnc still has the option)
- benibela 4y ago
  The issue is the new webrenderer or how it is called. There are options in about:config to disable it and force the old webrenderer. Then it can runs rather fast on X over SSH in LAN and somewhat okayish through the internet. Ten years ago I was using it all the time and it was very fast over the internet and perhaps even through Tor. I do not know how they could mess it up so badly
fsckboy 4y ago
I'm not sure what experience you're describing, for me the real crime trying to run a remote Firefox over a forwarded X session is that it figures out you're doing that and instead decides to run another window of your local Firefox instance. It's been like that a few years now. I can't imagine what they're doing under the hood, haven't looked into it, but it sure is irritating.
- drdec 4y ago
  It's not detecting that you are trying to run remote. That's just the default behavior of the firefox command, to use the running instance of there is one. IIRC, there is an option you can pass on the command line to get around it.

ajb 4y ago

Just had to use Firefox remotely (to use WeTransfer to ship a giant file, they dropped support for their cli, grr), and had exactly this issue - it works incredibly slowly over X over SSH. In the end had to use vnc over SSH. (Note that tightvncserver seems to silently ignore the -localhost option now, which means it's completely insecure to run on an internet connected machine. Tigervnc still has the option)

benibela 4y ago
The issue is the new webrenderer or how it is called. There are options in about:config to disable it and force the old webrenderer. Then it can runs rather fast on X over SSH in LAN and somewhat okayish through the internet. Ten years ago I was using it all the time and it was very fast over the internet and perhaps even through Tor. I do not know how they could mess it up so badly

fsckboy 4y ago

I'm not sure what experience you're describing, for me the real crime trying to run a remote Firefox over a forwarded X session is that it figures out you're doing that and instead decides to run another window of your local Firefox instance. It's been like that a few years now. I can't imagine what they're doing under the hood, haven't looked into it, but it sure is irritating.

drdec 4y ago
It's not detecting that you are trying to run remote. That's just the default behavior of the firefox command, to use the running instance of there is one. IIRC, there is an option you can pass on the command line to get around it.