The ability to ssh to another system, launch a GUI app, and have it display on the system you're SSHing from
When was the last time you've actually done that?
When was the last time you've actually done that?
I have large (64 core, 256 gigs of ram) servers in a university data center, and a lab full of small atom machines.
I can run matlab without a gui, but still have graphs etc pop open when I need one.
Yesterday I ran a remote Firefox on a machine in the same room so that I could play sound on attached speakers, but still view the video locally, on my laptop.
Sometimes I need to run expensive applications on a big machine, but from the comfort of my home or office. X11 forwarding is pretty nice for that.
I run headless Linux VMs on my mac, and ssh to them, running them natively displayed on my laptop. Sure, I could use whatever VMware gives me to display apps, but X11 works better.
It's got plenty of valid use cases, and that's just ones for me.
Why do you need X11-apps from multiple(?!) local linux VMs on your desktop?
What GUI-app other than matlab do you need to run remotely?
Exporting X11 windows from multiple VMs on localhost? X11 forwarding Firefox to access remote speakers? Seriously?
Yes, there are niche scenarios where nerds still use X11 for useful hacks like that (myself included), but the discussion is about the future display architecture for the proverbial linux desktop.
X11 has been a ball on a chain here for a really long time now. Use-cases such as "too lazy to open a matlab pool" or "splice firefox audio" are not exactly a convincing counterweight.
I'll gladly trade in my ability to run a remote gnuplot every once in a blue moon for a desktop experience remotely comparable to OSX or Windows.
Bringing these examples up as scenarios that must be considered in the design of the future linux display system seems... well, contrived to me.
Network security admins allow only a port 22 binary connection to an inner enclave of protected machines, protected by firewall. I need to admin those machines, sometimes with gui apps. ssh -X to the rescue.