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Try using lbxproxy (slightly dated but still useful howto). I find it makes a pretty big difference over non-LAN connections towards the "very usable" part of the slider.

if you forget to 'make clean' after changing a header, you can end up with object files using old definitions

Or you can use lbxproxy.

I use both of them to throw windows quite some distance - even across dial-up connections sometimes. Dial-ups are still slow, but not interminable. Cable or DSL, while not as snappy as local access, are still well within acceptable limits.

Oh, and Citrix sucks. The Citrix X server has got to be the worst one I've ever used. Constantly crashing, can't handle lots of applications like some versions of Mozilla. All in all, Citrix is a giant, stinking turd.

How much better is it than LBX?

http://www.paulandlesley.org/faqs/LBX-HOWTO.html

Here is an howto on a low bandwith proxy. it's included with x, no modules to add on, works over a phone line, and has a kitchen sink.

LBX (Low Bandwidth X) is an X server extension which performs compression on the X protocol. It is meant to be used in conjunction with X applications and an X server which are separated by a slow network connection, to improve display and response time

For people wanting to use X over low bandwidth connections, the X consortium (?) in their infinite wisdom invented LBX ("low bandwidth X").

Note that I don't know much about LBX except for the above, so if you used it and you think it sucks, it probably does. My point is that the X Consortium hasn't been ignoring bandwidth as you seem to suggest.

...can be found here. It's really easy to follow his instructions to get true type fonts working right.

There's a standard X extension (?) called LBX that comes with XFree86 and others. Check out the LBX Mini-HOWTO if you are interested.

Cheers //Johan

Even sending changes in terms of rectangles (or whatever) of pixels is quite expensive, mainly because you have to look at what the changes are in the first place (the graphic engine of the underlying platform may be of great help here).

Although VNC is a Good Thing(TM) when the server runs on a *NIX machine, there are more mature (in terms of performance) products to remotely display Windows applications (i.e. PCAnywhere). VNC people acknowledge this, saying that there is large space for improvements.

But if you need only to run remote X applications and have an X server, a really good solution is compressed X protocol: see the LBX-HOWTO and DXPC in particular (the link in the HOWTO is outdated). With dxpc, 128kbps should be really more than enough for everyday's needs (unless you have to play Quake, of course, or watch a DVD...).

Now, what I'd really like to see is something supporting both this and ICA (and perhaps some local apps in ROM/Flash, since the thing necessarily needs some processing power and RAM in any case).

I also know an answer is "shut up, buy yourself a laptop with 802.11, install Linux on it and on your box in the basement", but a device having a only a compact flash slot (instead of hard disk/floppy/cdrom/etc.) and keyboardless (if you have to type extensively, better go to a desktop anyway) would be IMHO a better (and possibly cheaper?) solution.