X-Windows Server on Microsoft Windows

• X-Windows for Windows sites (lots of good links
  
  
• Cygwin(see installation history below)
• Cygwin user guide
• Cygwin/XFree user guide
• FAQ
  
  
• Others
• X-Win32 (UCLA license $25/year)
• MI/X ($25) -- X-server price comparison (I tried it and was not impressed)
• Exceed (GJ and and Microsoft use this)
• XSecure Pro
• WebTerm X

Installation history

2004-03-27 Update

Follow the instructions in the Cygwin/X User Guide. I installed the xfree86 packages and openssh (from the net category). Since I installed the programs to E:\XP\cygwin instead of the default C:\, I had to change the variable CYGWIN_ROOT to \XP\cygwin in the X-windows startup file, E:\XP\cygwin\usr\X11R6\bin\startxwin.bat.

Andrey uses Cygwin to log in through GDM or KDM. It's not secure at all, so I don't think I should set that up.

2002-04-30

On 30 April 2002 I installed Cygwin by clicking on install now. On 1 May I read the Cygwin/XFree user guide -- they said to add openssh and inetutils to the default installation. I successfully started setup.exe again and added those; I also added the following:

• nsync -- "fast remote file transfer program"
• ttcp -- "a network benchmarking tool"
• ncftp -- "an improved ftp client"

I then started Cygwin and succeeded in connecting to Cyberspace using ssh.

At this point -- morning of 1 May 02 -- I'm not clear whether I need to install all of XFree to use X-windows on my Win98 system. This is something none of the guides have thought of telling you. In the meantime, I configure cygwin by adding this line to the cygwin.bat file in c:/sygwin

set TERM=vt100

This allows me to use cygwin to check mail etc. However, cygwin makes a fairly small window, covering about half my screen, so it's not terribly useful for this. Still, it's fun to have what feels like Linux running on my Win98 box.

See instructions for making cut and past work in Cygwin. Invoking mount without any arguments displays Cygwin's current set of mount points:

C:\cygwin\bin on /usr/bin type system (binmode)
C:\cygwin\lib on /usr/lib type system (binmode)
C:\cygwin on / type system (binmode)
c: on /cygdrive/c type user (binmode,noumount)
d: on /cygdrive/d type user (binmode,noumount)
f: on /cygdrive/f type user (binmode,noumount)
g: on /cygdrive/g type user (binmode,noumount)
h: on /cygdrive/h type user (binmode,noumount)
i: on /cygdrive/i type user (binmode,noumount)

This shows that Cygwin has mounted the current Windows drives, with some variations:

C: -- program partition of main drive
D: -- user partition of main drive
E: -- the zip drive (not included!)
F: -- unclear, possible the Novell drive?
G: -- the CD drive
H: -- nicco
I: -- cyberspace

You can also use the mount command to add new mount points, and the umount to delete them (see user guide).

See setting up passwords.

Conclusion: Cygwin has a good, solid feel, with a good font. It may be worth it to install XFree within it and get a wholly free software installation. Before you do that, it may be worth giving X-Win32 a try.

MIX

On 1 May I also installed MicroImage's MIX 3.0, and made it work. The program allows Spello to receive pages from Cyberspace. I used SecureCRT to ssh to Cyberspace and then redefined the $DISPLAY environment variable in this manner:

export DISPLAY=128.97.184.152:0.0

Then I started kde, pixie, and opera from SecureCRT, and the pages indeed got served to MIX. However, it was no faster than TightVNC -- even the picture quality didn't really seem improved. I uninstalled MIX.