[KLUG Members] Re: windows software to talk to linux -- Cygwin/X, X-Terminals, etc...

[Bryan J. Smith]

On Tue, 2002-05-14 at 16:40, Rusty Yonkers wrote:
> First ... anyone have a good suggestion for a Windows
> software package (free type) that will do ssh and
> sftp?

Cygwin -- http://www.cygwin.com

I don't install Windows systems without it.  There's not a day that goes
by where I don't use it in one way or another for something I couldn't
do with Windows alone (or even 3rd party software that might have
"Spyware" issues anyway).  You can even setup Win/NT (although no
Win/DOS) systems running Cygwin as full SSH servers for easy remote
administration and remote script execution.

The nice thing about using OpenSSH under Cygwin is the fact that it is
always up-to-date because porting to Cygwin is cake.  And you aren't
searching for various UNIX utilities you normally have under Linux --
they're right there, ready-to-use and _very_ up-to-date (because porting
to Cygwin is easy)!

> Second ...I am wanting to setup some terminal server
> (I know - it is a windows term) type stuff with Linux.
>  I am looking for two things.
> Number one is that I need to find a free Xserver
> software package for Windows so that we can run Linux
> applications and/or desktop on Windows.

Cygwin/X -- http://www.cygwin.com

XFree86 4.x, including a full X-Server (using DirectX), is included in
modern Cygwin releases.  It's even been updated with 4.2.0.

BTW, instead of using the self-downloading "setup.exe" program, I have
been downloading the "setup.*" files and the "release" subdirectory from
the various Cygwin FTP mirrors.  It's the easiest way to setup X as it
is included under the "release" directory, and the setup program sees
all the ini files during setup.

Instead of X, you can use the VNC viewer to connect to a running VNC
server on your UNIX host.  But because X-Windows is native attribute
passing versus entire frame buffer, X-Windows is far leaner of an
approach.  Using SSH, X tunneling in inherit.

> Number two is that I want to find a thin client type
> of Xwindows terminal that will interface with Linux
> well.

Too expensive IMHO.  Cheaper to built a ~$350 Linux PC (including 17"
monitor) without a HD.  Administration/TOC is similar, using TFTP boot /
NFS root-mount from your UNIX/Linux server so you're not maintaining
files on the local system.

> Something relatively cheap I am thinking.  This
> is partly to show off some stuff at school and partly
> because I would really like to setup a couple of
> terminals around the house connected to my Linux box! 
> I know that when the thin client concept was big a few
> years ago people like Wyse made stuff but I cannot
> seem to find anything now that seems to be the ticket.

Never seen one cheaper than $1K.  They are _expensive_!

> I know that if anyone knows the answer to these then
> it will be someone on this list!

Of course ...

-- Bryan

-- 
The US government could be 100x more effective, and 1/100th the
Constitutional worry, if it dictated its policy to Microsoft as
THE MAJOR CUSTOMER it is, and not THE REGULATOR it fails to be.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Bryan J. Smith, SmithConcepts, Inc.   mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org
Engineers and IT Professionals     http://www.SmithConcepts.com