VNC and VMWare

[Dan Kaminsky]

> I have to disagree with that assessment.  I've had several video cards which
> were poorly supported under SVGAlib--to the point that the video card would be
> left in an unclean state when the application exited, and the only way I would
> be able to use the console at all was by starting X.

Whoa.  We've had *totally* different experiences--I've got a Neomagic, a
Matrox Millenium I, and whatever comes with this HP Kayak XA.
 
> Moreover, if an X application crashes, you can click on the x and kill it.  Or
> go to an xterm and kill it.  Or switch to a virtual console and kill it.

Or the machine could just die, rock solid, not even responding to pings.

>  If
> an SVGAlib application dies in nasty ways (something I've seen happen in the
> past), it can conceivably keep hold of your video hardware and your keyboard,
> requiring you to log in remotely to get console control back.  With X, this is
> only even possible when the X server itself crashes, something I haven't seen
> on any of my video cards in a very long time..

If SVGALib dies, it's not because of some complex command that a broken
Netscape sent to it.  (Mozilla...will...rule...must...keep...faith...;-) )

That's why I like svncviewer--there's such a hard boundry between the X
server and the graphics code.

Diffr'nt strokes for different folks.  I honestly had no idea experiences
varied so much here, so I hope I didn't insult anyone :-)  In *my*
experience, I'd be wary of running X on a production server, but I
wouldn't think twice about using svncviewer.

--Dan