[X2go-dev] [Pkg-x2go-devel] Getting things started with x2goclient

[John A. Sullivan III]

On Wed, 2011-02-02 at 10:02 +0100, Erik Auerswald wrote:
<snip>
> The problem with NoMachine going closed source is that the people
> updating, improving and fixing (the free) NX will stop doing so (or
> have already done that). NX is the enabler for X2Go, but I don't see
> X2Go having the manpower to tackle the additional task of developing
> resp. maintaining NX themselves.
> 
> Erik
This concerns us quite a bit.  On the other hand, it plays to one of
X2Go's strengths.  Heinz and Alex have always maintained that it is not
a remote protocol solution like NoMachine but a complete Terminal Server
Project.  Some have criticized it for just being a bunch of wrappers but
I see that as its saving grace here.  I'd imagine there is no reason why
something else besides NX could not be slotted into the wrappers in
place of NX -- perhaps something that handled video and other large
screen updates better.

Of course, the big question is what.  HP has done some very interesting
work with adaptive protocols, i.e., they adapt their compression
algorithms to the needs of the video transfer.  If I understand them
correctly, they handle the streaming video problem not by spooling the
file to the physical desktop and playing it locally like Citrix does but
by adapting the algorithms used for transmitting the video.  I do not
believe they have open sourced the code.

Almost two years ago, Heinz forwarded me a link to a University project
that was investigating more video friendly remote video protocols.

So, I don't have an answer but I think we can keep our eyes open for
something besides NX.  Just an ignorant thought - John