vnc vs freeNX?

[Wayne Throop]

::: VNC doesn't "stream raw bitmap data"
:: This makes me wonder what it actually does... 
:: stream compressed bitmap/pixmap data? 
: That'd be nothing new, and that's what I implicitly included when I
: said "raw bitmap data".  Whether the data is wrapped up in (losslessly
: or unlosslessly) compressed packages or in uncompressed packages, it's
: still raw bitmap data. 

AIUI, vncserver will do fill regions, and scroll regions, when it can intuit
the higher-level description of what's going on; the ability to do this
will vary a bit.  Whether you count scroll and fill operations as
"compressed bitmap" operations is another issue.

As to performance, I've found vnc is at a performance advantage when there
is high latency.  Because the acknowledgement of X protocol operations
occurs locally, because the X server and app are on the same host.
It is possible it does this short-circuit of acks better than freeNX in
some cases.  Mind you: I don't know that it does better, but it could.
Certainly it can outperform unenhanced X protocol.


Wayne Throop   throopw "at" sheol.org