[geeks] Desktops

[Peter L. Wargo]

On Thursday, May 9, 2002, at 06:25 PM, Jonathan C. Patschke wrote:

> Is it possible to do actual work on those?  I saw them everywhere when I
> visited the San Diego campus (even the security desks had them.  When 
> they
> came out, Sun made it sound like they ran special software, kinda like
> Java applets, with all the processing done on the server.  That made it
> seem a little less than useful for anything other than custom 
> applications
> written inhouse.

I think you might be confusing the Sunray with a javastation.  The 
Sunray is essentially a "remote display" for a system, and works just 
like any workstation.  It works so well that I would not go back to a 
standalone workstation - the quiet is so cool.  It's also nice and 
fast.  Plus, I pull smartcard, walk into lab, inset it into lab sunray, 
and keep working.

> Are you set up to use it as a plain-vanilla XTerm with 
> session-management
> on the smartcard, or is there some magic going on here that I'm missing?

No magic, it's really pretty simple.  Server-side software, a private 
network for the sunrays, and that's about it.  Like I said, it's just 
like using a workstation, but quieter and usually faster.  We even run 
opengl stuff on 'em.

-Pete