Semi-OT: VNC Alternatives.

[Scot L. Harris]

On Thu, 2005-11-03 at 11:32, Les Mikesell wrote:
> On Thu, 2005-11-03 at 09:03, Scot L. Harris wrote:
> 
> > I'm not running windows on my laptop anymore but have several launchers
> > (icons) that I can just click to start various applications that
> > actually run on remote systems.  No need to get a command line window to
> > start those applications.
> 
> An interesting variation on this (assuming you started Cygwin X in
> -multiwindow mode) is to start nautilus in your first window.  Then
> you get a window showing your Linux desktop minus the gnome menus,
> but able to start any launchers you have placed there - which you
> can do by simply dragging them off the gnome menu when you have
> a normal login.  You can arrange the launchers in folders or place
> a symlink there pointing to some pre-built set of launchers (handy
> for setting up a large group).  When you double-click the launcher
> a new window opens on the desktop for the application.
> 
> A related question: is it possible to execute just the gnome menu
> or task bar in a remote window?  Sometimes I'd like to park just the
> menu buttons from several different machines on my desktop so I can
> execute anything/anywhere without having to build launchers in the
> file systems.  Or is there already a location where nautilus would
> display this?

For somethings I have setup ~user/bin directory on the remote system and
put various scripts in there.  On the local system I setup a drawer on
the task bar that has various launchers which call those scripts via
ssh.  Not exactly what you describe but close.  Similar can be done
under windows.  

One thing to keep in mind when using ssh for forwarding, you may need to
use -Y for trusted forwarding.  I found that using -X in some cases
results in unacceptable/unusable performance.  This can also be set in
the ssh_config files.

As to executing just the gnome menu/task bar, that might be possible. 
It would have to be tested.  But it might be easier to just write your
own app that displays a list of programs/scripts that you want to run on
each system.