VNC vs X-terminal

[Russ Paielli]

Quentin Stafford-Fraser wrote:

> Russ Paielli wrote:
>
> > What are the disadvantages of using VNC as opposed to a standard X-terminal setup?
>
> Hi Russ -
>
> Here are some pros and cons:
>
> * VNC typically uses fewer round-trips than X, particularly as an
> application starts up.  Your link is quite high bandwidth, but if the
> latency is high, you may find things appear more quickly if you use VNC
> than if you use X.
>
> * X, however, generally requires much less bandwidth once the
> application is up and running.  This is because it makes more use of
> resources at the terminal (fonts, cursors, etc).  With VNC these are all
> rendered at the server and copied over the network.  So X will often be
> faster, but VNC works across more platforms and is less dependent on the
> facilities at the terminal.
>
> * X applications will die when the connection is broken, whereas a VNC
> viewer can disconnect and reconnect as many times as it likes and the
> applications keep running.  This is particularly useful if you have
> long-running apps, or if you wish to connect from more than one place.
>
> Hope this helps,
> Quentin
>

Yes, thanks, that helps.  However, I am still not quite sure whether VNC makes sense
for me.  I guess I just have to try it.

Your web pages on VNC do a nice job of explaining the advantages of VNC over X, but you
could do a better job of explaining the disadvantages too, and of putting them in
perspective.  For example, I don't recall seeing much about the additional
data-exchange requirements of VNC.  Are we typically talking about a factor of 2, 10,
or 100?  And what kind of bandwidth does a typical user need to make the response time
for VNC a) tolerable, b) reasonable, or c) instant.

VNC looks like the greatest thing since sliced bread for non-Unix or Unix/non-Unix
connections, but are there many users out there who use VNC in place of X for Unix/Unix
connections?  A bit more insight would be helpful.

Thanks, and keep up the great work!

--

Russ Paielli

http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Lab/9488




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