[FreeNX-kNX] FreeNX distributed computing

[Felipe Alfaro Solana]

On 10/9/06, Tom Kavanaugh <tomnaugh at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>  Hello,
>
>  I am starting to use freenx as a replacement for citrix, VNC login servers.
>  What additional benefits will I get by using the distributed computing of
> freeNX?

Err.... FreeNX is not about distributed computing. FreeNX is about
terminal services.

Distributed computing is about running programs across several
machines, usually in parallel. FreeNX is about saving costs by using
thin/silly clients which usually require near-to-zero maintenance and
upgrades.

>  Is it something like the citrix load balancer?

The commercial version of NX supports load-balancing across servers
and, AFAIK, the free version does too with a patch.

>  Like you have a bunch of boxes in a network, and the user login is directed
> to the less loaded box?

That's what the commercial version of NX is supposed to do when you
configure several NX servers.

>  I am reading about the NX distributed computing architecture.

Err... once again, the fact that FreeNX uses several components
(client, node, server) doesn't mean FreeNX is distributed computing.
In fact, you run software on servers to which multiple clients attach.
But clients are pretty thin, so I wouldn't consider this scenario a
distributed one, but a centralized one.

>  Does anyone have experience using distributed computing in a freenx
> environment?

I have helped in setting up a FreeNX-based server machine which is
currently live supporting few users. Maybe I can share my "expertise"
:-)