Use Xming on Windows to view X11 forwarded apps
Recently, I have had a need to use Windows more frequently (Windows-only games and ActiveSync!), but still have a high demand on my network at the same time. I have sought to be able to combine the best of both worlds. I previously relied heavily on Web-based applications, but my favorite Web Development IDE was developed for Linux only. I had put up enough with the banalities of using WebMin and it’s built-in file editor. I have read about others having success running KDE apps on Windows, but since I had my Quanta already setup and configured, I looked for a way of just being able to access that. Honestly, I’m not very excited about using VNC over WiFi, even with high compression.
To my surprise, I found that Xming was specifically suited to my needs. It acts as an X11 server, allowing me to use it to display my X11 applications that I have forwarded through SSH. It works perfectly.
It took a little time for setting up, but if you have got PuTTY installed and working, sixty percent of the work is already done.
Below is a screen shot that shows my running Windows Vista desktop, programming in Quanta which is actually hosted on a server called A. This is connected through an SSH tunnel from my laptop to my C server using the Putty client. From the C server, I launch the Quanta program using another SSH connection to the A server. It looks just like the Quanta program is a native windows app on the local Windows Vista desktop. You’ll also notice I’ve got an xterm session open connected to server A in the background.