I have a crazy question, and I'm sure the answer is "it can't be done. What a stupid question!", but here goes.

Say I've got an SSH server and an X Window server running on my Windows PC. Would it be possible to log in remotely from a Linux computer using SSH and launch a MS Windows or DOS program through a forwarded X Window? That way, I wouldn't have to bother with VNC.

I assume this wouldn't work, because I assume the X Window server can't display a MS Windows program, even if the X Window server is running on a MS Windows PC.

Still, if anybody knows a way to make this work, I'd love to hear about it.

SECOND CRAZY QUESTION:

I use MobaXVT and MobaSSH on my PC, rather than a full Cygwin build. If is IS possible to tunnel an MS Windows or DOS program through an X Window and SSH, would it be possible with the stripped down Moba servers, or would I need a full Cygwin build?

Thanks in advance!

Why don't you just rdesktop instead of VNC? It uses the native Microsoft RDP (i.e. Remote Desktop)...

EDIT: Oh yeah, I would vote for "can't be done" because windows apps don't use the X server. I guess I've never tried running a remote windows program via Wine, but that's sort of what would have to happen because you have to have the local API's running on the linux machine for the Windows program to function properly.

I'd like to circumvent both VNC and RDP.

But you're right, RDP does allow opening a specific program rather than displaying the entire desktop. I suppose I could just go with the easy answer...

After trying it out, I can confidently report that an RDP connection to my Windows PC is much faster than connecting to my Linux PC by tunnelling X through SSH.

On the other hand alert: I just discovered the -C option to compress SSH, and it really speeds up the tunnelled Xwindow connection.

I like kde3.5 because it is better than kde 4. But there is no chance to vote for kde3.5, I think gnome is better than kde 4, so i vote for it...

I hope someone comes up with a good answer, but in the mean time, I do a related thing. I sometimes run Windows apps in Wine on my upstairs Linux PC via SSH from a remote PC.

That is, while downstairs I can type "wine freecell" into an SSH terminal and up pops the familiar Windows game.

At the end of the day, I've just been using the old SSH&VNC combo.

However, since I haven't used the Windows PC referred to in this thread for a long time, maybe I'll just install Debian on it and run what few Windows programs I need via WINE.

Hmm... I've never had a permanent Linux desktop before. I've only ever used it for servers, or on older laptops once Windows got too bloated to run properly on them. Hmm...