If I'm trying to edit some work documents, I want Word running on my work's LAN, so all my documents on the fileserver will be available(without the risks involved in just copying stuff to my laptop, then leaving it on the train). I want my bittorrent client to be running on a computer with a fast pipe and a big disk, even if I'm controlling it from my cellphone. If, though, I'm opening my bittorrent client, or trying to edit some documents at work, it matters where the program is running.
If I just want to type out a shopping list, or check a web page, it doesn't really matter where the program I use runs(which usually means that I should run it locally, because latency sucks). If you have a whole bunch of windows open, with lots of tabs, and a half finished document, and some other stuff you are referring to, it is way more convenient to just connect to your session, rather than try to recreate it on another machine.Ĭitrix, X, and NX are really convenient for situations where a program's context matters. on one computer available over the network from another computer. VNC/RDP, for instance, make it really easy to have your entire desktop session, with all open programs, program state, etc. I'd say that, these days, it is more about session persistence, network location, and access to local and/or network resources that make these technologies most useful. Now that even modest hardware is extremely powerful, X makes very little sense. This setup made sense a long time ago when servers were extremely powerful and client PCs were weak. X apps are basically entirely run on the server with only display updates being sent to the client. Web apps leverage the local PC and can also leverage the server where it makes sense. Web apps and X apps are not really competitors. Slashdot could not possibly function that way without enormous hardware and bandwidth upgrades, and even then it would probably be an annoying experience for many users on connections that experience frequent lag. In contrast, X apps are run on the server and merely displayed on your local PC. The only communication that will occur with the server is when I click on Submit. It was fast and responsive and efficient because it all happened entirely on my local PC. While writing this comment, my local PC did the spell checking, it handled the keyboard events, and it updated the display, all without any communication to, or from, the server. Web apps are often the right solution compared to X apps because they leverage the power of your local PC. Many web apps make frequent HTTP calls to sync with, or access resources, on the server, but that's completely optional. Web apps are downloaded to your local PC and run there. I'm so tired of people comparing web apps and X. Well this sure beats HTML+HTTP and Javascript for displaying remote applications.
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