How difficult would it be to make the equivalent of Windows Terminal Server with Wine?

[Markus Amsler]

Hans Leidekker wrote:

>>>different apps you want to serve. The user uses IE to navigate to that 
>>>page. When clicking, the App comes up as a window in his/her machine. 
>>>First time visit Installs a 12M  Cygwin/X server.
>>>      
>>>
>
>I really like the concept but your approach seems to limit publishing of apps
>to Windows boxes. Theoretically you could run the OCX (Internet Explorer) on
>Wine and the Cygwin/X as well but not practically though, if only from a 
>performance point of view.
>
>It would be more interesting if Mac/Linux/Unix users could use their browser
>of choice and their native X server, which is usually already installed on
>those platforms. How exactly is this approach dependent on the use of an OCX?
>
> -Hans
>  
>
I really like the idea invoking a X-session from your browser. Some time 
ago working on some complex php/dhtml web site administration  scripts, 
I had the feeling programming a real app instead of a web app would be 
much easier. I never got concrete, but made some ideas.
My approach was the following:
Server side:
  - defining a mime-type application/x11-control (or something similar)
  - a x control file, with all the information to connect to the 
X-client over ssh (app-name, host, ports, [ssh username,password], ...). 
(say tst.x11)
  - a link to the tst.x11 file in the webpage.
  - the app itself
  - a unix user (anonymous or autorized)
Client side:
  - A x invoking script
  - Map application/x11-control type to the x-script

When you click on the link, your x-script gets invoked with the tst.x11 
files, which then connects to the x-client. You could also (optionally) 
specify an anonymous user/password setting for the ssh tunnel.

This approach would be completly platform independant. But it would 
require the web-client to install the x-script and map the mime-type 
(well the x-script installation could do that). I googled a little 
around, but found nothing similiar, although the approach seems to me 
pretty obvious.

This may be a little off-topic, but the idea combining http and x is 
really fascinating.

Markus