[Rule-list] graphical browser redux

[Martin Stricker]

hairylarry at deltaboogie.com wrote:

> A skinny X terminal would be great for rule if we can find one that
> runs well on 16 and 32 Meg machines. The likely candidates from
> the Red Hat rpms are WindowMaker and icewm (or something like
> that). WindowMaker is a gnu project and delivers a NextStep
> interface. ice?? is one of the smaller window managers. They both
> have configurator tools.

To run a window manager you need a X server first...

> Does anyone have any experience with these or other thin clients?
> Should we include vnc? For many environments installing rule as a
> thin client on old hardware and then running apps from an app server
> on one new machine could deliver good performance. Telnet, of
> course. ssh? Then for graphic clients, vnc and an X terminal if we can
> find one.

That would be a possibility, but most of our target group (with the
exception of schools) won't have a server. And please no telnet, we
should guide newbies directly to SSH!

> Other options for a graphical browser are browsers that use GTK+
> and browsers that write to the linux framebuffer. I know of no rpms
> for browsers like these.

Me neither. Anyone? I'd love a framebuffer application!

> I do think we can include a listing of non supported programs that
> someone has run successfully under rule. Especially if such a
> program is as important as a graphical browser and there is no Red
> Hat supported alternative. If we find such a beast we should make an
> rpm and encourage Red Hat to include it. Then it could go on the rule
> menu.

Agreed. Those RULE RPMs and SRPMs should reside on the RULE download
area. At a later step a ISO image with all the RPMs/SRPMs and the
installer (bootable) could be useful, too, especially for schools.

> Anyone with other thoughts on thin clients and thin browsers please
> post them. I will continue to research this area.

Well, for my needs lynx or links are absolutely sufficient.  A
framebuffer-based picture viewer would be a *very* nice thing to have...

Best regards,
Martin Stricker
-- 
Homepage: http://www.martin-stricker.de/
Red Hat Linux 7.2 for low memory: http://www.freesoftware.fsf.org/rule/
Registered Linux user #210635: http://counter.li.org/

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