This may be simple (or not doable). If I have a linux server and a linux client, can the X-desktop on the client be connected to the server such that when the user on the client logs in he/she is actually logging into the server and can see his/her folders on the server rather than the local client?

In my use of Linux, the X-desktop has always been for logging-in/accessing the local computer. But, if I recall from ancient days, X-Windows was originally designed to connect remote X-terms to some central server. That is, a GUI version of remotely connected TTY terminals.

Is this doable? If so, how? I'd like to try it.

I think it is doable. But you might want to just setup a vncserver on the server and let the user login to the client then once logged in start a vncclient that will connect to the vncserver. Each user can have a desktop on the server that they attach to via vncclient.

OK, I'll try experimenting with that. After doing a bit of research on VNC I found that "the server sends small rectangles of the framebuffer to the client. In its simplest form, the VNC protocol can use a lot of bandwidth". This could be a concern for me with multiple clients involved which might be doing graphic intensive things. Whereas an X-term running on a workstations gets rendering commands (kind of like html), not bit-images. Seems like an x-term would be the simplest approach and require no special software on either client or server ... if it's doable at all.

Has anyone set up and x-term on one computer that talks to a different computer (or knows how to do it)?

Hmmm, not sure vncclient is going to work for me due to the "let the user login to the client then once logged in ..." bit in your comment. Here's the scenario:

I've got about a dozen users. There is (will be) a workstation at one end of the office, and a workstation at the other. All users can log into either workstation. The problem is I woould have to configure a dozen users on each workstation and also on the "server". It gets worst if users are added/removed and/or if another workstation is added. Too much maintenance. I need a way to have these workstations act as remote terminals and the users log directly into the server.

Thots?

I think you want this http://www.ltsp.org/

OK, I'm going to try pursing the VNC thing first.

My environment is Slackware 64 and it has libvncserver-0.9.9-x86_64-2 and tigervnc-1.1.0-x86_64-1. I've found other versions of vnc out there including REALvnc, ultraVNC and tightVNC. Some of these are commercial and supported.

For those of you who have actually done VNC on Linux ...

First question: I've come across lots of howtos about starting the various programs, program options, tunnelling, etc., but nothing that really tells me how to proceed step by step.

So, Let's say I'm a user sitting in front of a workstation in my office and I want to log into the Linux server in the computer room and get a desktop for my user account on that server. What do I do?

(chrism01 - I'm also investigating ltsp)

I'm going to re-post this question specifically for vnc as the title is a bit nebulous.