"What was once old is new again and the desktop-centric
computing is making way for return of thin client/mainframe
computing again. This tutorial will walk you through setting up a
Ubuntu desktop to act as a "mainframe", capable of being accessed
by a thin clients or regular desktops, using the excellent FreeNX
server.
"FreeNX is an open source implementation of NoMachine's NX
Server. It is a bit more akin to Microsoft's RDP protocol that the
usual VNC, so while keeping bandwidth to a minimum, it maintains
good visual quality and responsiveness. You can connect using
NoMachine's monetarily free NX Client, which is available for
Windows, OS X, Linux or Solaris. Also, by default, all traffic is
via SSH, so your connections are encrypted.
"There are quite a few scenarios where this is useful. At work
our sensitive data is on a network that is not directly connected
to the internet. To access the internet, users remotely connect to
the NX server. This requires opening only a single port (22) in one
direction, and is quite secure. It saves a huge hardware layout,
eases administration, and as it's a locked down linux computer,
there's considerably less worry about viruses and malware (our
network is predominately Windows)."
