XRX X11 web plugin?

[Silent-Hunter]

I just found this thing that lets you run X11 apps in a web browser on another computer. Is it possible for this to still work? If it's too old and won't work anymore, that's OK. Just wondering.

http://www.opengroup.org/desktop/hot/xismore.htm

 

[Wally]

I'm going to wait a few hours until you decide you are serious..

 

[Silent-Hunter]

Well whatever happened to it? It seemed like a neat idea, and X is open source now, I was only wondering if this is still part of it, and how to make it work if it is.

 

[levi]

X has always been open source since at least X11 in 1987 (albeit sometimes via alternate codebases like XFree86, as licenses changed over time).  And it's always been possible to run programs on one machine but display them on another.  If you configure it correctly, it's just a matter of 'ssh -X' into another machine to start programs that display natively.


But this new code does do something new - it runs an X server inside a web browser.  Just a shame that these days X is being replaced with tech like Wayland, which doesn't natively have network transparency in the same way X does, so timing could be better.

 

[Silent-Hunter]

This code is not new though, it's from 1996. I just wondered if it was still available for use.

 

[levi]

Since most of the links to actually get code are now dead, I'd say no, it's not still available.


Seems it didn't use JS to render an X server, but instead had an early browser plugin to natively render X.  Even if I could find the code, it's unlikely that would still work in modern browsers without a fight.

 

[Silent-Hunter]

I suppose not, but that's a darn shame. It would have been useful to me.

 

[Yoyobuae]

Not quite the same, but you could use VNC instead.

 

[Silent-Hunter]

Ah no, I'm not looking for an alternative, I already have VNC. I wanted to see if this specific software was still usable.

 

[levi]

If you're going from one machine capably of hosting X software to another running an X server (e.g. any combination of linux/BSD/Unix to another), then X forwarding is what you want, as I mentioned above.  If you want to go from a *n[iu]x server to Windows you'll need software capable of acting as an X server, such as Exceed (assuming that still exists - it's been fifteen years or so since I last used it).


There is another client-server architecture designed to transmit computer screens and applications, but I forget it's name.  It was a two letter name IIRC, but my google-fu has failed me I'm afraid.  If you're going from windows to windows, you'll need something that can talk RDC for best performance.

 

[FBnil]

http://www.jcraft.com/weirdx/


I remember playing with that in the past.


On browsers, there are many cool plugins that died off.  Some to display math (LaTeX like) or music in html, or 3d wireframe webpages...  remember having frames?


From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Window_System :


There are also Java implementations of X servers. WeirdX runs on any platform supporting Swing 1.1, and will run as an applet within most browsers. The Android X Server is an open source Java implementation that runs on Android devices.


As for why it isnt used... Citrix makes a fortune with DAAS, I use it.

 

[Silent-Hunter]

Exceed (assuming that still exists - it's been fifteen years or so since I last used it)

It's still here: http://connectivity.opentext.com/products/exceed.aspx


I wonder how much it costs.

 

[TrashyMG]

We still use Exceed on Demand at work, even when using Linux it's nice to have all your X sessions stored for later use. Since everything is running on a server you avoid having those accidents were you accidentally close your laptop when you have a script running on a remote terminal that disconnects when your laptop loses network connection. Quick connect shortcuts are stored server side too, so if you move to a different workstation they'll still be there as well.

 

[Silent-Hunter]

It sounds really nice. Although what I want is something that can forward the interfaces of already running X applications from my laptop to Pandora or Pyra.

 

[Yoyobuae]

We still use Exceed on Demand at work, even when using Linux it's nice to have all your X sessions stored for later use. Since everything is running on a server you avoid having those accidents were you accidentally close your laptop when you have a script running on a remote terminal that disconnects when your laptop loses network connection. Quick connect shortcuts are stored server side too, so if you move to a different workstation they'll still be there as well.

Uhm, GNU Screen? Unless you mean something running on a GUI, but for command line stuff a GNU Screen session running on the server side should be enough I think.

 

[TrashyMG]

Uhm, GNU Screen? Unless you mean something running on a GUI, but for command line stuff a GNU Screen session running on the server side should be enough I think.

Uhm yeah I use a ton of UNIX gui applications, not just command line things.

 

[levi]

Uhm, GNU Screen? Unless you mean something running on a GUI, but for command line stuff a GNU Screen session running on the server side should be enough I think.

Not that this has anything to do with X, but since you're recommending Screen, I take it you've investigated tmux already?

 

[WizardStan]

Honestly it seems to me that everything promised by this is superceded by HTML5 and REST services.

 

[Silent-Hunter]

Those can run X applications? And embed desktop stuff in a webpage?

 

[WizardStan]

Yes, actually.  Even a VNC client if you wanted.


But that's not what I meant.  That website lists a bunch of very specific and also general-use cases for the technology, all of which are applicable to modern web architecture that didn't exist back in 1997: you can "Run ... Applications from Across Platforms", "Run Real Applications From Within Your Web Browers", "Serve Your Front End While Protecting Your Data", "Get the Most Recent Applications off Your <internet connection>", and "Imbed Any Application In Another".


If you want a web presence for your application and you're most familiar with the X11 APIs then this may be a perfect plugin for you, but it seems to me that you can accomplish the exact same thing using just modern server and browser tools, which would be better than requiring a plugin.