On 13/09/2011 11:25 AM, Warp wrote:
> Invisible<voi### [at] devnull>  wrote:
>> Now I haven't tried it, but I'm told is approximately /impossible/ to
>> actually configure X so that you can access it remotely. Even though
>> that's its entire design goal.
>
>    I don't know what you mean.
>
>    For the sake of it, I just now tried to do a "ssh -X" to a friend's computer
> (who is also running linux) and ran xclock. It opened nicely on my screen,
> even though the program itself is running on my friend's computer (which is
> physically located something like 200 km from here).

Like I said, I haven't personally tried to run X remotely. (I wouldn't 
know how.) I'm told it requires spending hours editing the X 
configuration files to set up authentication and so forth, and then to 
make sure the server is started, and then to tell the application you 
want to run to open on the remote machine rather than the local one (by 
using CLI options that vary for every individual program so you have to 
look them up), and then...

And that's without encryption. If you want encryption, now you have to 
also install and configure an ssh server and client, set up 
authentication and encryption keys and god-knows what else.

>> And yet, Windows is the one where I run a command, type in the name of
>> any networked PC, and I have remote access. By default. No special
>> configuration required.
>
>    What kind of configuration did I do to be able to log in into my friend's
> computer and run an app remotely? Or to transfer files for that matter (which
> was the original point)?

So you're seriously telling me that with a default Linux install, not 
only is an ssh server installed, but it's actually configured to allow 
incoming connections and service them? And that X will actually work in 
this configuration?

I know nothing about X, but I do remember setting up my old laptop to be 
an ssh server so I could RDP into my Windows box over the Internet. It 
was a hellish nightmare of wading through manpages finding out how the 
hell to do what I actually wanted to do...

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