4 ms·

Twenty minutes ago. Here's a list of actual uses that I have personally done in the last week. I have large (64 core, 256 gigs of ram) servers in a university

Twenty minutes ago. Here's a list of actual uses that I have personally done in the last week. I have large (64 core, 256 gigs of ram) servers in a university data center, and a lab full of small atom machines. I can run matlab without a gui, but still have graphs etc pop open when I need one. Yesterday I ran a remote Firefox on a machine in the same room so that I could play sound on attached speakers, but still view the video locally, on my laptop. Sometimes I need to run expensive applications on a big machine, but from the comfort of my home or office. X11 forwarding is pretty nice for that. I run headless Linux VMs on my mac, and ssh to them, running them natively displayed on my laptop. Sure, I could use whatever VMware gives me to display apps, but X11 works better. It's got plenty of valid use cases, and that's just ones for me.

moe 15y ago
Sounds rather contrived to me... Why do you need X11-apps from multiple(?!) local linux VMs on your desktop? What GUI-app other than matlab do you need to run remotely?
- burgerbrain 15y ago
  Why do you get to say that what he does is contrived? What makes your usage patterns any less "contrived" than his?
  - moe 15y ago
    Well, why should I not say when it sounds contrived to me? Exporting X11 windows from multiple VMs on localhost? X11 forwarding Firefox to access remote speakers? Seriously? Yes, there are niche scenarios where nerds still use X11 for useful hacks like that (myself included), but the discussion is about the future display architecture for the proverbial linux desktop. X11 has been a ball on a chain here for a really long time now. Use-cases such as "too lazy to open a matlab pool" or "splice firefox audio" are not exactly a convincing counterweight. I'll gladly trade in my ability to run a remote gnuplot every once in a blue moon for a desktop experience remotely comparable to OSX or Windows.
    - burgerbrain 15y ago
      Unless you are claiming that he is lying, I don't think that contrived means what you think it means.
      - moe 15y ago
        Perhaps we have a different interpretation. I meant to say I find his use-cases rather obscure because e.g. X11-forwarding a Firefox is not exactly my idea of a sane answer to the question "how do I forward audio to remote speakers?". Bringing these examples up as scenarios that must be considered in the design of the future linux display system seems... well, contrived to me.
        metellus 15y ago
        His examples were not contrived, they were actual examples of times that mcpherrinm recently used X11 forwarding (unless you are claiming that he lied). If you want to say that his use cases are obscure, strange, or niche enough to not merit consideration, that's fine, but "contrived" doesn't mean any of those things.
sixbrx 15y ago
I also do this quite often. Network security admins allow only a port 22 binary connection to an inner enclave of protected machines, protected by firewall. I need to admin those machines, sometimes with gui apps. ssh -X to the rescue.

moe 15y ago

Sounds rather contrived to me... Why do you need X11-apps from multiple(?!) local linux VMs on your desktop? What GUI-app other than matlab do you need to run remotely?

burgerbrain 15y ago
Why do you get to say that what he does is contrived? What makes your usage patterns any less "contrived" than his?
- moe 15y ago
  Well, why should I not say when it sounds contrived to me? Exporting X11 windows from multiple VMs on localhost? X11 forwarding Firefox to access remote speakers? Seriously? Yes, there are niche scenarios where nerds still use X11 for useful hacks like that (myself included), but the discussion is about the future display architecture for the proverbial linux desktop. X11 has been a ball on a chain here for a really long time now. Use-cases such as "too lazy to open a matlab pool" or "splice firefox audio" are not exactly a convincing counterweight. I'll gladly trade in my ability to run a remote gnuplot every once in a blue moon for a desktop experience remotely comparable to OSX or Windows.
  - burgerbrain 15y ago
    Unless you are claiming that he is lying, I don't think that contrived means what you think it means.
    - moe 15y ago
      Perhaps we have a different interpretation. I meant to say I find his use-cases rather obscure because e.g. X11-forwarding a Firefox is not exactly my idea of a sane answer to the question "how do I forward audio to remote speakers?". Bringing these examples up as scenarios that must be considered in the design of the future linux display system seems... well, contrived to me.
      - metellus 15y ago
        His examples were not contrived, they were actual examples of times that mcpherrinm recently used X11 forwarding (unless you are claiming that he lied). If you want to say that his use cases are obscure, strange, or niche enough to not merit consideration, that's fine, but "contrived" doesn't mean any of those things.

sixbrx 15y ago

I also do this quite often. Network security admins allow only a port 22 binary connection to an inner enclave of protected machines, protected by firewall. I need to admin those machines, sometimes with gui apps. ssh -X to the rescue.