Good thing I'm not using Windows

[bcc1234]

So I'm sitting here doing some work and my desktop's monitor goes bust. Something just popped inside and the screen went blank.
I turn both the monitor and the computer off then turn them on and realize that the monitor is really gone.

If I had been using Windows on my desktop, I would be probably be on my way to the nearest computer store getting a new monitor cause I would need one right away to continue work.

But since I run linux on both my desktop and laptop, I just started a remote session from my laptop and now I can continue working as if nothing happened.

All applications that I start, actually run on the desktop, so I don't need to synchronize or transfer any applications or files to the laptop. I see my usual desktop layout, and when I start the e-mail client, it starts on the desktop and runs on the desktop. The same thing with all other applications and with the window manager itself.

All work is going on the desktop and once I have the new monitor delivered, I'll just continue as if nothing happened.

It's unbelievable that such functionality has been around in the *nix world for a decade (probably more), and yet, people still think that Windows is somehow more progressive.

[ZoneMR]

Hmmm, VNC has worked on win32 for ages, and XPs remote desktop is great, so the features you describe are not specific to Linux.

In fact linux's X windowing system is pretty backward and in desperate need of an overhaul.

[bcc1234]

I'm not talking about VNC or other remote-access apps. One would have a hard time starting them up on a box that had just lost a monitor anyway.

I'm talking about the backwardness that you've mentioned.
Becuase X has been designed with networking at its core,
all you have to do is specify the location of the server on which your apps should be displayed and you are can start working.

And of course, it's not unique to linux. For example, I've been using X on a freebsd box long before I tried linux for the first time.

[J_RaD]

RDC is standard install stuff on XP pro, All you have to do is make sure you have the box checked to enable it, and its ready to go anytime anywhere.

So really anyone running XP pro could do the same thing you just did.

[bcc1234]

I'll quote my earlier post:

It's unbelievable that such functionality has been around in the *nix world for a decade (probably more), and yet, people still think that Windows is somehow more progressive.

[MattyMoose]

To add some fuel...

So really anyone running XP pro

Which costs significantly more than Home edition, which does not allow you to accept incoming RDP sessions, therefore you need to use 3rd party apps like VNC. (Not to mention various other restrictions re: max connections, domain membership, etc, but that's all part of running a business. :)

But, as we all know, "The right tool for the right job", right? :)

[bcc1234]

It's not just that either.
For example, I can run a game in a separate X session and it consumes 100% of the CPU at all times.
Once I'm feeling like taking a break from palying and doing some work (which I try to do as little as possible), I set the priorities of the processes of that session of X and that game to some really low value (numerically high) and switch to my main session. After that, even though the CPU is still 100% busy, I don't even notice that because all other processes get higher priority.

I mean really -- I don't notice the difference at all.
If I set you in front of my desktop and asked if there is a game (or some other CPU intensive process) running on low priority or not, you wouldn't be able to tell.

Yes, windows has priorities for its scheduler, but its effectiveness doesn't even come close. When a windows box is busy, you know it.

Windows will have a good scheduler in 2010 or 2015, maybe.
But there are so many things at which windows is so far behind. It's really amazing that more people don't realize it.

BTW, I don't think you can even start multiple, completely independent, sessions of windows on the same box and switch between them whenever you want. But I'm not sure about that one.

[drhowarddrfine]

Windows will have a good scheduler in 2010 or 2015, maybe.

Then there will be Plan9.

[zCat]

When I need a change of seating or scenery, I take my iBook somewhere else within wireless range, fire up Apple's X Window implementation and call up the programs I need from my Linux workstation. My girlfriend got ever so worked up the first time she saw me doing that, she thought I'd installed Linux on the iBook.

When I'm feeling particularly perverse, I start up a VMware instance running Windows on the Linux computer. from the Mac, although unfortunately VMware won't run in full screen mode on a remote client.

FWIW I used to administer some NT boxes via PC Anywhere, which was launched from a Windows instance running in VMWare, and I was using FreeBSD at the time, so VMware was running under FreeBSD's Linux emulation layer.

Have Microsoft come up with symbolic links yet, by the way?

[wheel]

Ah, an apple user... the only person who can trump us linux geeks in the OS flamewar. Best stay quiet or I'll have to hit you with 'your just a graphic artist' :).

[zCat]

Oooh, I do hate these prejudices. I'll have you know the only graphics software I use on the 'Book is GIMP. In fact the reason why I "switched" is that I needed a UNIX-based laptop, and the small premium for an Apple is more than compensated by the time spared fiddling around getting Linux to run properly on portable hardware.

Want to see my OpenBSD firewall?