> The other problem with centralising X is network bandwidth. All of the > graphics have to pass to and fro which means you need both high > bandwidth low latency and no network problems. > > This makes the network a choke point to be watched and will put off > some people.
One thing that is often forgotten when talking about X these days is that it was designed for machines and networks comparable to today's mobile phones. Sure, there was little to no use of bitmaps and client-side font rendering, but our network and video technology has scaled up with our software requirements. X is quite an efficient protocol - certainly better than network framebuffer protocols such as RFB (VNC's protocol), and even they perform well over low bandwidth connections. Add compression to X (which is as easy as using ssh -C -X) and you're doing even better. The scars from earlier centralised computing fads are still there... :-) - Jeff -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
