[NTLUG:Discuss] Xwindows servers and clients...

[kbrannen@gte.net]

Tom Woody wrote:
> At work I have a very nice linux workstation (dual Athlons, lots of ram, etc) - very nice.  I also have a laptop which isn't too shabby, but obviously lacks some of the features of a desktop (diskspace being the most prominent).  I would like to setup a small linux partition on my laptop (the rest is WinXP for games, and the like) so I can run Xwindows from my workstation, but still allow me to be mobile.  So when I am running Xwindows everything that I am doing is on my workstation.  I know this seems like pretty newbie questions - but I have been using Linux/Unix for quite a while - years - but primarily in shell not in X so any pointers are helpful.
> 

In addition to the advice give about using Cygwin, you can do it the way you 
wrote too.  Just create a separate partition, in the 1-2G range (or more if 
you think you need it for something, though you could probably get by with 
600M if you're careful), and install a minimal package set plus X and a window 
manager.

 From there, you can boot into Linux, start X, fire up an xterm, telnet/ssh 
over to your "big" box, set your DISPLAY back to your laptop, and then run any 
app you want.  I've done it here at home (before my laptop died <sniffle>), 
and I used to do it at my previous job.

If your laptop is seriously limited by disk space (you didn't say how bad your 
disk space problem is), a separate partition may not be feasiable.  A Cygwin 
install should be somewhat smaller (maybe 300M +/-), but then you've got the 
overhead of ms-windows getting in the way. :-)

HTH,
Kevin