It was only 10 minutes after my last blog entry appeared that one reader phoned me and objected: he thinks that the 280 msec latency he experiences from his currently Malaga/Spain-based notebook to his guest account on my NX server in Karlsruhe/Germany would be too much, and a data flow rate of 27 kBits/sec too sparse (he used a crappy and fairly saturated WLAN link to test this) to make users feel comfortable in using NX permanently, day-in and day-out over the network. He agreed NX was still performing very well, given the conditions he had to cope with, and that he could still be nearly as productive as he was used to from using his local machine.
OK -- I concede so much: I do not envisage many German government officials to mostly work from a holiday resort 2900 km apart from home. I think it is more likely for them to experience latencies of much less than 50 msec, and bandwidth of much more than 100 kBits/sec when they are in their offices.
I'd like to ask the readers:
- What are the figures you experience in real life?
- How does your company's network perform?
- What is your testimony about (Free)NX in your personal use case?
Syndicate Blogs
FreeNX is great!
I am using the latest SUSE RPMs on both x86-64 and i386 with SUSE Linux 9.3 and 10.0 in my daily work. On x86-64 the 32bit package works fine. The installation is straightforward:
- Use YaST to install FreeNX and its dependencies on the server.
- Run nxsetup --install --setup-nomachine-key on the server.
- Install either knx or the commercial Nomachine client on the client.
As a client I am currently using the free (but non-open-source) client from Nomachine. knx has worked for me, too, but it's not really "finished".
I usually connect to the company network via a DSL connection and run my office PC's desktop via FreeNX. The amazing thing is that with a somewhat outdated home PC (Celeron 500MHz with 128 MB RAM) I'm actually getting the better performance using the fast office machine via NX than I get if I use KDE locally. The overall performance is fine. I've tested ISDN, too. The system is still pretty usable over ISDN, at least for simple tasks.
I also use NX in the company (switched 100 MBit Ethernet) to connect to my development and testing machines. I can feel no difference at all between an NX session and the local X session.
I haven't got printer or sound forwarding running yet, but that doesn't have high priority for me. Resuming an old session usually works.
Things that have to be improved in the long run are mainly to be fixed in KDE. E.g. I'd like to see a global option to be activated in an NX session that reduces traffic by switching off effects and the desktop wallpaper. The NX session also shouldn't try to start the powersaved, and if I have another session running on the same machine I can't use the GPG agent.
I'd also like to "take over" my session from work and get it back when I'm in the office.
My experience.
I am using FreeNX v0.4.4 right now with the opensource components version 1.5.0. My Linux machine is a P4 2.0 GHz with 512 Meg Ram. I use Gentoo Linux with ... er ... with a lot of CFlags *cough*. I use KDE 3.4.2 with custom graphical patches to make it pretty.
These custom graphics work on the NX environment, but not on VNC. I have used VNC before and I can say that NX is faster, even with audio turned on. Currently there are two users using a remote desktop. The KDE Games are more responsive. 
However, there are noticeable slowdowns at times and you can just feel the lag, and this is a fast local network. I use a CK based kernel tuned for desktop speed. I guess I just need a faster computer.
It does run fast most of the time, but there are still times when I need to go to the machine directly. IF I was the only user on it, it would be fast all the time.
EDIT: I even do emerges and compiles while in a NX session.
I submitted the new FreeNX and NX Components ebuilds awhile back. They just haven't been updated in portage yet. If you are a Gentoo fan, you can check them out here:
http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=101691
This is for the 'how to install comment': It depends on your Distro how the files are installed. If it is RPM based, or Debian based, or some kind of a port system then you need to get the appropriate files for your system.
x86-64
My experience is not being able to install it since my system is x86-64.
The Gentoo FreeNX HowTo suggests using a chroot... kind of beside the point if your trying to access your system.
it does work
it takes some time, but it does work here... the how-to is usable, imho. and it is fun!
at my parents house i booted their pc with kanotix, made a remote ssh to my own pc, followed the how-to to install a chroot and then freeNX on it (yes, took a few hours), then used KLIK to install the freeNX debian package on the cd (love this abillity in modern livecd's) and connected... and it worked great!
yes but
But the point of FreeNX is to access your system remotely. Not a chroot. I suppose I could get on the chroot and then use my normal programs with a ssh -X. Its just a pain. :/
How to get it?
I would like to give some feedback about NX and FreeNX, but the whole NX stuff is somewhat confusing. I wanted to install the server but could not find a documentation about what to download and compile.
The documentation at the FreeNX site does not help and after downloading freenx-0.4.2.tar.gz I am left with a INSTALL file which obviously depends on other stuff which is not explained.
What did I overlook? Where is the simple Guide to install the server and client?
Install guides or the lack thereof
Hi Ponto,
Im a new user here - found you through much googling and general prowling of forums and support sites looking for a usable howto for building a FREENX server. Just wanted to say I noticed the tumbleweeds after your request for the "simple guide". Having worked somewhat with opensource solutions in various capacities I can only say that this one is liable to take awhile since its original developer has a company that sell a production version for a living. I have been doing much research into building my server but have yet to figure out the install. I will document everything I do and will post my results (assuming success) and I wish you luck in your search and research as well. I also have found a couple of mentions that others have committed to publishing their install documentation.
Keep an eye on criticalcontrol.com; https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/freenx-knx; http://fedoranews.org/contributors/rick_stout/freenx/;