Every newcomers to X think that servers and clients are reversed because they are

[Samuel Thibault]

Paul Dufresne, le Wed 20 Apr 2011 18:21:05 -0400, a écrit :
> User_Group       Authorized X application
> ----------------      --------------------------------
> secretary        LibreOffice

Which instance of LibreOffice, with which Unix rights?

> -I would rename the program we used to call the X server, to be called
> the X Client, and make it be a program similar to xdm

Then use the XDMCP protocol, it's meant for this kind of things.

> When you would start the X client, you would be asked to enter your
> username, password, and select the X server you want to connect to.

That's xdm

> After connecting and authenticating to the X server with your
> username, the server would send you the list of authorized X
> application you are allowed to run, depending on the user group the
> username is in. Then, for each application you choose to open, the X
> client would open a new window to speak with this X application on a
> new port. It would also send a request to the X server, to request it
> to launch the X application on the host where the X application is.

That can be built over the existing X server. What the X server provides
is access to a screen/keyboard/mouse. You can do whatever you want over
it and name them clients/servers, the basic principle remains: there's
some piece of software that knows how to driver a video board. You want
to display various things on it coming from various applications. You
thus need to manage multiplexing here. Thus what's called a server.

Again, you can throw the pile of software you prefer over it. As said
earlier in the thread, machines which merely run xdmcp really look like
clients like you describe. But the applications that get run connect to
an X server to get displayed.

Samuel