[X2Go-Dev] X2Go Client Windows binary 4.0.1.2pre01

[Michael DePaulo]

On Sun, Dec 8, 2013 at 5:41 PM, Stefan Baur
<newsgroups.mail2 at stefanbaur.de> wrote:
> Am 08.12.2013 23:37, schrieb John Williams:
>
>>> - It is still compatible with Windows XP! It bundles VcXsrv 1.14.2.1
>>> (2013-07-26) because all later versions of VcXsrv (starting with
>>> 1.14.3, released 2013-09-20) are incompatible with Windows XP.
>>
>>
>> Are there any plans to split off a version for Windows XP
>> compatibility, and to let the main version continue to get VcXsrv
>> updates?

That sounds like the best approach, but I would like to ask other
project members what they think. And I am open to other ideas. After
all, I think the only way to get VcXsrv security updates is to install
the latest major version of VcXsrv. That means upgrading to VcXSrv to
1.14 now, to 1.15 when it comes out,, and so on. At least X2Go does
not use every feature of VcXsrv (e.g., unsecured TCP connections), so
not every security vulnerability in VcXsrv would actually affect X2Go.

Also, remember that the build instructions for X2Go Client for Windows
consist of just installing VcXsrv to your program files folder and
then copying and pasting VcXsrv's folder into the x2goclient folder.
We do not link against VcXsrv. So feel free to replace the
x2gofolder\VcXsrv folder with a newer version of VcXsrv. Doing so may
not be officially supported by the X2Go project, but it is very likely
to "just work"(TM).

> Given that Microsoft's XP security support ends in April 2014, I'm guessing
> that X2Go support for XP could be dropped in May 2014.

This is something that I wanted to discuss on this mailing list.
Personally, I think it sounds like a "killer use case" of X2Go Client
to use it on Windows XP machines after May 2014. The XP machines could
be secured by sysadmins by having their firewall turned on (to allow
no incoming traffic), and their unpatched apps like IE blocked. The XP
machines could then be used securely as dumb clients to X2Go Servers
or RDP servers running Firefox, office suites, etc with all the latest
patches installed. Of course, the machines could just be reformatted
to run Linux. But many sysadmins are less comfortable with Linux, or
their ill-informed bosses might order them to not reformat any XP
machines.

> [...]
>
>
>> By the way, Michael DePaulo, thanks for your work on the Windows x2go
>> client! It is nice to see it getting a bit more attention than it has
>> in the past.
>
>
> +1!

Thanks guys! Like most unpaid open source developers I am contributing
for fun (AKA, "Intellectual Stimulation", see Lakhani and Wolf'
(2005)). I chose the Windows X2Go Client because I use it both at work
and at home. (My home network is very sophisticated. In fact, I tested
x2goclient on Windows XP 32-bit SP3 by installing XP onto a VM. I
hosted the VM using virt-manager on a Fedora 19 machine that I use
exclusively for hosting VMs. I then used virt-viewer + the spice
protocol to access the XP VM's desktop at 32-bit color. (I couldn't
use RDP because the XP RDP server defaults to 16-bit color or less,
and the max you can raise it to is 24-bit.))

-Mike