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Ask Slashdot: Open Source Remote Application Access?
First time accepted submitter taikedz writes "Citrix Xenapp with Receiver/Metaframe allows publishing individual applications installed on a Windows server to users on remote machines. These applications open in their own windows, along side others as if they were installed locally. I am looking to do the same at home, with free software, publishing applications from Mac, Linux, and Windows machines (and yes, I've verified the license agreements for the apps I am going to do this with!). Up until now, the only alternatives I have found are full-on remote desktop login, not seamlessly-integrated. Can you recommend any tools that can achieve the goal of remote individual application access across platforms for free or at low-cost?"
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Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
So, X11.
#DeleteChrome
This has been a feature of X since before X11. It's even easier to use now with SSH supporting X forwarding. And if you're using it across the public internet, you can get good performance with FreeNX.
Unfortunately, this is all likely to go away if X is deprecated in favor of Wayland.
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First, if you haven't already read up on Xwindows networking model, you really should. X natively supports what you're requesting, and has for decades. In most cases, it's as trivial as opening a ssh connection to the remote machine, using the -X flag. E.g. 'ssh -X remotehost'
If you need to support Windows applications, you can use RDP in seamless mode. Newer RDP clients for windows support this natively, with a little configuration work. There is some support in the linux RDP client, but when I tried it about a year ago, it required a special helper application to work. Be aware that RDP is no where near as fast as Citrix.
Finally, if you simply want Windows applications to seamlessly integrate with a linux desktop or visa versa, VMWare player/workstation supports a seamless virtualization mode. It would not surprise me if KVM or Xen have a comparable feature, but I haven't played with them on the desktop long enough to know.
Have you looked at these solutions? https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SeamlessVirtualization
for publishing from X, take a look at xpra
it works very well
NanoX makes X usable even over slow links. There is a free version. It is quite a joy to use and is superior to RDP/VNC implementations.
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
True linux supports x forwarding but for a true seamless experience I would suggest freenx or the actual commercial version of nxserver for speed and power.
They are also working on ports for mac and windows (server versions) you could ask to be a beta tester for this. Apple has a remote desktop client of its own and nativly supports vnc if you go to your sharing tab under system preferences there is an option there to share your screen. As far as using vnc with Mac though different clients respond differently. Ive found some vnc clients work with the mac port of vnc wonderfully while others are dog slow. There are a ton of commercial options for all 3 platforms as well a little google research will pay dividends
http://www.nomachine.com/
I'm sorry, my mind pulled the server, not the client side of the question.
The NoMachine server/client is amazingly fast.
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
Please take a look at X2GO, I use it and it's very stable, it supports audio forwarding and file sharing. Although I am experiencing some keyboard issues for some key modifiers (making vim/emacs unusable for me).
Windows Server 2008 has fairly well-rounded support for seamless application sharing, it's very similar to Citrix Xenapp but not as full-featured. 2008 R2 expanded this even further. Read up on Remote Desktop Services, you may find everything you need is already built-in.
http://www.ulteo.com/home/ is a simple drop in replacement for citrix.
on mac client launch x11
on linux server
~#export DISPLAY=*YOURIP:0*
~#firefox &
done
For Windows Server apps to Mac/Windows/iPhone/iPad/Blackberry clients. Allows application and/or desktop publishing. Very similar to Citrix. Unfortunatly it will not provide for publishing apps FROM Mac or Linux.
For home use I recommend Window Switch. You could roll your own DIY solution with a combination of xpra, X11, vnc, rdesktop, ssh and so on but WinSwitch already does all that for you.
[FUCK BETA 2.6.2014]
No machine's nx server/client does exactly what you want. http://nomachine.com/
It's been years since I used it but the free version used to work on both Linux and Windows. The website says it works on Mac ,Solaris, and HP.
http://www.realvnc.com/
If you can install a Tomcat server then you can stand up Guacamole. It provided RDP and VNC access to client systems through a web browser without plugins and can even provide audio output from a win7 desktop.
Option 1. (if your software is linux-native or runs stable under wine, needs no fancy gfx)
xrdp + wine - a remote desktop solution, integrates well, authenticates well
rdesktop can haz a seamless mode, preferred corporate solution
can be tunneled via ssh or vpn to add security
ubuntuwiki/xrdp
Option 2. (if your software is linux-native or runs stable under wine, needs no fancy gfx)
ssh -X remotemachine "wine remoteapp"
to integrate: ActiveDirectoryAuthentication
Option 3. (if your app only runs only on windows, you live in a reverse engineering friendly country) ... :> I've done this in small corporate environments, but usually in such situations you either have to choose between investing in making your apps run under wine, or pay m$ or a commercial opponent for their work.
(was?) LEGAL only in some countrys i.e. germany, sweden,
have a (possibly virtualized) xp/win7 box running your apps, modded with:
a. Seamless RDP hack (xp only afaik)
- SeamlessRDP
- Ubuntu/SeamlessVirtualization
b. Enable Multiple Concurrent RDP Connections
a bit hacky but it works, rly
Finally you could have a look at TinyCore as a nice toolbox to mend it all together.
anx XMPP ulzq de
X is completely useless over anything more than a local network. Between South America and Europe, the only viable approach I've found is to run an Xvnc session remotely and then VNC to that. This is more or less what is proposed for remote Wayland, so we lose absolutely nothing by switching from X to Wayland (once all the necessary parts are implemented). Not sure where this unrealistic pro-X anti-Wayland FUD comes from. Nostalgia for dying 80s era technologies?
What I'd like to know is whether we can have a way to time-share Windows applications. Consider an office of 100 people. At the moment, they all of MS Office installed, just in case they get an attachment that LibreOffice can't handle. That's 100 copies of the MSO license.
We'd like to move them to Linux, and LO, but still need that MSO capability just occasionally. So the obvious way is to set up 100 free desktops, and put 5 Windows+MSO machines in the corner, people can then walk over, queue up, and use the MSO machines if they really must. Result: only pay MS for 5 licenses, and start escaping lock-in.
But that's really ugly. Is there any elegant way to do this seamlessly for the end user, with VNC or similar? We need to ensure that 100 people can all (potentially) access MSO in their own environmnent (own PC, own view of the fileshare, if possible, own preferences), but with some sort of queuing system that shares out the access.
I'm aware of the ugliness if 6 people need MSO at the same time, and that this might not work well for video, or advanced powerpoint. But otherwise, how might it be done? (And given that MS might not *like* it, how do we stay legally covered. IMHO, this is perfectly fair, because MSO is only ever installed on 5 PCs, and only ever used by 5 people at a time).
This sounds like exactly what you're looking for:
http://stanev.org/winconn/
Look at ulteo.com it does it (by the creator of mandrake) but I've not tested it
If you're looking for a Linux host, with client software available for Windows, Mac OS and Linux, try X2Go. It's similar to NoMachine's NX (and in fact uses parts of their open-sourced components), but truly free as in speech for both server and client, not just free as in beer like the NX clients. (BTW, NoMachine is going closed-source with their upcoming release).
Disclaimer: I am not just a happy and satisfied user, but also the paying sponsor behind X2Go's individual application publishing mode.
X2Go URL: http://www.x2go.org/
Set up VNC sessions with the application running, but no window manager.
Use VNC?
That's funny.
VNC is a pig even on a LAN.
Caching and compression with X is much more effective.
While X haters were busy repeating 20 year old arguments, the rest of the world caught up with Unix. Now if you gut remote desktop access, you will just be making Linux look like it's 20 years behind.
You've got to bake this stuff in. You can't just ignore it. There's really no way around it. Otherwise you end up with stuff like what Mac users are stuck with.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
I know it's not free, but didn't SCO Taratella do this? It's now Propalms TSE, but it looks like it only provides a Windows server and multi-platform clients. Sad if so.
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_remote_desktop_software#Operating_system_support
/usr/NX/bin/nxclient.
/etc/ssh/sshd_config # Change PORT line /etc/nxserver/node.conf # Change SSHD_PORT
NX has already been mentioned, but giving more details. Personally, I do think that Linux needs a good, fully GNU, non-MS-tied graphical RDP client/server (especially for businesses trying to go completely Linux). However, I think NoMachine/NX is probably what you're looking for based on the question. Also, as already mentioned, you can use VNC or X11 forward calls to your machine or even use xrdp on server with rdesktop client -- but NX will be faster than all of these from my rough testing in the past. I personally just always use SSH as I've never found a need for a graphical client, but I know a lot of people that do want/need this.
Server:
In your package manager, just search for "freenx" and install.
sudo nxsetup --install
sudo service freenx-server start
sudo chkconfig freenx-server on
It uses SSH as the backend which should already be up and running.
You may need to open up the port (22) in your firewall.
Client:Install from website and run
For added security, I suggest changing the port:
sudo vi
sudo semanage port -a -t ssh_port_t -p tcp <port> # For SELinux
Edit firewall appropriately.
sudo service sshd restart
sudo vi
sudo service freenx-server restart
The G
Have you tried FreeNX?
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How about this one: http://winswitch.org/
greets,
patrick@.be
<> No, I haven't. I'm just trying to figure it out right now. If it is comparable to my VNC session (i.e. I get responses back in a time roughly comparable to the RTT) then I'll switch.
I haven't tried it myself, but stumbled on it few years ago.
Ulteo (download links) should provide you with seamless application integration regardless of the platform.
Downside: the webclient is java based
There are no atheists when recovering from tape backup.
<> That's weird because it works fine for me quarter-way around the world with a 200ms RTT. I'm not trying to watch YouTube, though. Maybe we have different expectations. VNC works well enough at this distance to let me do what I need to do, whereas X fails completely. I would sing X's praises if it actually performed. FreeNX maybe works, if I could find packages, although it seems pretty much abandoned on Debian. Even the x2go stuff doesn't have a server available. How long is it going to take for someone to knock up a VNC server for Wayland? Not very long at all. It is an easy and fun student vacation project. How long before someone gets tempted to do something a bit more optimised? They could be the first, and set the standard. Glory and power, irresistible. I think there is no need to worry about Wayland having no remote access.
Try XRDP. It doesn't have all the features MS RDP has but the features it has work well. You can use different rdp clients like mstsc, rdesktop, freerdp and thin clients. http://www.xrdp.org/
Maybe if you have brand new applications written properly then X is okay. However, I have old legacy apps that require many round-trips between the X client and server to do the simplest things. For a cross-country link with 60ms ping it is *FAR* faster to use VNC than to use X.
A little known add on for Windows clients: RemoteApp for Hyper-V. It allows Windows clients (XP+) to be used as seamless application hosts for RDP clients.
http://www.brianmadden.com/blogs/gabeknuth/archive/2010/01/06/RemoteApp-for-Hyper_2D00_V-_2D00_-Microsoft_2700_s-single_2D00_user-app-solution.aspx
Caveat: does not require Hyper-V
The viewers for all Office components are free downloads. You could also set up Office Web Apps server (also free if you have a Software Assurance agreement) which will integrate itself into your Exchange 2013 environment to view all Office documents in Outlook's preview pane.
Or... you could get a few subscriptions to Office 365 for $8 a month per user if the usage is infrequent...
[RIAA] says its concern is artists. That's true, in just the sense that a cattle rancher is concerned about its cattle.
No matter what protocol you choose, the right color palette can make it MUCH faster. most business applications look fine with 256 colors. modern desktops typically use millions of colors. 256 colors is SO much more responsive than 16 million.
X is completely useless over anything more than a local network. Between South America and Europe, the only viable approach I've found is to run an Xvnc session remotely and then VNC to that. This is more or less what is proposed for remote Wayland, so we lose absolutely nothing by switching from X to Wayland (once all the necessary parts are implemented). Not sure where this unrealistic pro-X anti-Wayland FUD comes from. Nostalgia for dying 80s era technologies?
Experience with VNC. Slinging pixels sounds like a horrible idea if you've ever used VNC. Of course the issue is VNC is just slow, since obviously if I can stream 1080p from YouTube my quad core i7 should be capable of doing something similar with it's desktop output.
That said, it does seem like a missed opportunity in Wayland not to let applications pass some type of sub-information about drawable window space up to the compositor for this purpose - Wayland deals with them as flat buffers, there's no protocol way to send any information about the internal layout (i.e. it'd be great to be able to declare some sub-regions, and inform whichever remote end to restore cached information about them).
This won't exactly solve your problem, but it's sort of similar. Parallels, a virtual machine that runs on OSX, has a "Coherence" mode when virtualizing a Windows computer. In this mode, you don't see the full Windows desktop inside a native window, but just the individual windows of the Windows applications you're running. I think you can even set an option to display them with OSX decorators so it's less visually jarring. As far as I know, there's not a networked version of this, but it may be a starting point.
To publish Linux-based programs (and Windows-based ones which run fine on Wine) you might want to have a look at x2go, a project based on NX. I've used it for a few years without problems over all sorts of networks. Clients are available for 'the big three' (Linux, Windows, OSX), the server runs on Linux. Performance is good over a wide range of networks, all the way down to GPRS/dial-up.
--frank[at]unternet.org
If you need a GUI on top of that (not sure you really do):
Disclaimer: Xpra and winswitch maintainer.
You did do a google search first, right? Did you miss this answer?
AFAICT, most of the other posts talk about virtualizing and other irrelevant topics.
TODO: 753) write sig.
You can stream 1080p compressed across the Internet because someone spent considerable CPU power to compress the video in advance that you can not possible do in real time.
Per-recorded versus real time.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
Why is everyone insisting on open source software?! Did they guy ask for advice on what was open or not? Quoting "Can you recommend any tools that can achieve the goal of remote individual application access across platforms for free or at low-cost?" It doesn't matter if NoMachine's v 4 is closed source. What counts is that it WORKS! And who said NX 3.5.0 is not maintained any more? What nonsense!!!! As a long-term customer of NoMachine's v3.5.0 eagerly awaiting v 4 to come out of Preview, I can assure everyone that this is not the case.
I didn't know pre-teens were allowed here ...
for the debian guys:
apt-get install xpra
or
http://winswitch.org/
Here are some Java Remote Desktop applications.
I have used this one.
http://jrdesktop.sourceforge.net/
http://code.google.com/p/red5-screenshare/
Surprised that nobody has come across this as an open source SSL VPN ...