An X-Client Wrapper for Microsoft Windows?

S asks: "In my opinion, one of X11's most underrated features is the ability to export the display of an [X] application to an X-Server that can be physically separated from the application's host (use a remote display). I have used this countless times to dramatically increase my ability to 'get stuff done' from a distance. Recently I discovered Cygwin's ability to run XFree86 in rootless mode (startx -- -rootless) where there is no main X root window, and imported displays get their own 'native-looking' window on the Microsoft Windows platform. This also has saved me much headache when working from a Windows machine to do Linux-type things. My question is: Is there some way to export the display of Microsoft Windows windows to a remote X-Server? I'm not talking VNC/RFB here, and terminal services (via rdesktop) ALMOST fits the bill, but I don't want a root window. I want to simply export the display of (say... photoshop) to my X workstation. Googling is not an easy task; 'windows' is too much of a generic term to get usable results. What I have found, however, suggests Wine as a buffer between native Windows GUI calls and the X protocol, but offers no actual solution. Does anyone know of software that allows allows Windows to export the display of its windows to an X server (ie, an X-Client wrapper for Windows)?"

Comments

We do something similar to this at work.

[Anonymous Coward]

I work in retail, for the time being. Recently, they put in new time clocks and scheduling software.

The machines scattered around the store are widely varied and many of them are quite new, but all of them have the same software: Win95, and some Novell shit that looks more like a dieing gasp than a functional program.

The point? These machines suck, overall.

But that's not really the point, is it? No.

The scheduling software runs on a Win2k AS box somewhere in the store, and uses 8-bit RDP for local display. You just run the scheduling app like any other app, and a Win2k startup banner appears in the middle of the monitor, just like any other window... It runs quite fast once the session boots up.

RDP is, therefore, more flexible than the poster appears to give it credit for.

And the trick, therefore, is not some funky-ass, nonexistant X/Win32 translation suite, but just to use existing, native protocols, and one of the many free RDP clients available with X output.

Nevermind, of course, that licensing for Win2k AS is hideously expensive. You've all got an eye patch sitting around somewhere - if not, just "borrow" one from a friend.

Re:Citrix

[GigsVT]

Citrix is incredibly fast too. One downside is that it is very picky, and the mode you can put it in where you can resize the application window makes some applications unhappy. In other words, it's not nearly as transparent as X, but it is insanely fast and bandwidth efficient.