On Sat, Jan 05, 2008 at 07:48:53PM -0800, Ted Unangst wrote:
quoted text
> On 1/5/08, Douglas A. Tutty <dtutty@porchlight.ca> wrote:
> > Is there anything that, bug-wise, could go wrong with that remote
> > browser that would be able to read or alter anything on the local
> > machine?  I'm talking about using ssh's X forwarding features, not using
> > X's native forwarding.
> 
> a lot more can go wrong than can go right.  in theory, yes, you are
> insulated from the client acting up.  in practice, the isolation is
> often too complete.  i have never had an app actually work via an ssh
> -X connection.

I do it all the time.  The __only__ "normal app" I can't get to work is
from an OpenBSD box, ssh -X to a Debian box running Iceweasel (Firefox).
Debian-Debian even Iceweasel works just fine.

The reason I do it is my main box is in the basement and has lots of
power and memory.  My remote box is upstairs and is a P-II.  Its hard to
run a current Firefox on a P-II with 64 MB of ram.  The KDE apps
(Konqueror, Kpdf) work well also.

The other type of app I can't run is VLC.  I guess it gets confused
trying to acceess a hardware display (even if all I want to do is play a
cd).  No biggie, I just tried to see if it would work.

Doug.