Re: [Thinstation-general] firefox

[Fredrik W. <fre...@gm...>]

> Please quote the list too.

Sorry about that


> > thanks for the answer. Let's see if I get it now. After I've connected
> > to the thinstation with ssh -X, the display variable is clearly set to
> > the thinstation terminal
> > ip address. And if I then run an application (firefox) that also is on
> > the thinstation,


>
> I'm not sure I follow you. When you run TS with a WM and a local FF,
> it's completely server independent. It's simply a stand-alone micro
> Linux system, so I can't follow the need for "ssh -X" to a server.


let me clarify (but I don't want to waste anybody's time with this since it's
really no issue): I always wanted to run the window environment on the
desktop like a traditional X terminal. But it bothered me that
firefox, especially with flash, sends so much data over the LAN.
That's why I thought I was smart when did ssh -X
to the thinstation and then ran firefox. The firefox app and the
display are on the same machine but the X traffice still goes over the
net (twice it appears) because the window manager is on the
application server. So I understand now that if I want to run firefox
locally on thinstation I have to have the window manager there.
When I mention ssh -X I only do with reference to the situation with
the window manager on the app server (traditional X style)

> It seems what you really is after is an old school X terminal. In that
> case I'd recommend you to run NX, but I see in your other thread you
> already are testing this.

Definitely.  NX always seemed the be the choice, that's what I started to look
at thinstation.  Maybe I'm going to try to solve the problem with the key
repetition that I mentioned in the other thread


> But I think you should reconsider the X terminal idea. It's really old
> school and you have very powerful terminals that easily can handle its
> own business as long as we speak running FF.

Yes absolutely, but I want to have many more applications:
OO.org, gimp, maybe mail client etc. Firefox is as far as I understand the most
problematic of the common desktop apps on thin clients, that's why I focused my
questions on it


>
> Your need to run OOo is interesting. This van't be run client side as
> it is simple waaay to big. NX is the way ahead here. But you can
> easily run FF client side and OOo server side in a window on the TS
> desktop. I'll be very interested to hear about your experiences on
> this.

That sounds like a very good idea, but I really need to have quite a
windows-like a very desktop for my people. I've decided on Xfce (I
always discarded gnome and KDE for being bloated) and then I only hear
grunts of it being a ugly so it's acceptable.  I have to bring people
over from Windows and they want to have all the features of the modern
desktop like associations between files and apps in the file manager
etc. So if I have a file in Thunar that is to be opened with firefox
(local firefox), it sound a little complicated although it could
probably be done.
And when I install new apps on the app server, I have to take care to
put shortcuts on the thinstation desktop.

So in a library for example where you're not likely change the configuration
very often, and whose terminals aren't people's daily workstations,
I'd definitely go
for the Thinstation desktop.  Maybe in february next year I'm going to
have look at such public sector customers.

Thanks for the kind attention,

Fredrik Wikefeldt

>
> Mike
>
>
> >
> > /Fredrik Wikefeldt
> >
> > On 11/9/06, Mike Eriksen <thi...@gm...> wrote:
> > > On 11/9/06, Fredrik Wikefeldt <fre...@gm...> wrote:
> > > > Hi,
> > > >
> > > > I'd like to know if anyone has successfully run firefox on a
> > > > thinstation client, not as an own 'kiosk' session, but called from the
> > > > server via ssh -X.  What I would like to have is firefox appearing to
> > > > the user as just any application. But when it is launched, (via some
> > > > script) you find out at what terminal the user is at and then
> > > > the local firefox at that terminal is executed.
> > > >
> > > > I did that but firefox was unbearably slow, much slower than in the
> > > > kiosk mode. The client is a pentium III 750 MHz with 130 Mb ram, so
> > > > you would expect it to handle the load.
> > >
> > > No you wouldn't as the network is the bottleneck. You are streaming
> > > every single pixel through the net and you don't even use compression!
> > >
> > > I suggest you run with a WM (iceWM) and have FF as the only
> > > application. The same time you can setup STORAGE_PATH to point to the
> > > NFS server, and you are done.
> > >
> > > Mike
> > >
> > >
> > > > If I manage to get it up to speed, I still need to get firefox to
> > > > connect to some nfs home directory on the server so that the user can
> > > > save things from firefox as he normally would. I guess that should be
> > > > to big of a problem (unless you discard nfs for security reasons).
> > > >
> > > > /Fredrik Wikefeldt
> > > >
> > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > > > Using Tomcat but need to do more? Need to support web services, security?
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> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Thinstation oldtimer
> > > http://thinstation.sourceforge.net
> > > - a light, full featured linux based thin client OS
> > >
> >
>
>
> --
> Thinstation oldtimer
> http://thinstation.sourceforge.net
> - a light, full featured linux based thin client OS
>
>
> --
> Thinstation oldtimer
> http://thinstation.sourceforge.net
> - a light, full featured linux based thin client OS
>