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In many organizations, Windows desktops sit side-byside with Linux, Sun, IBM AIX, HP-UX and other Unix-based hosts that provide X Window applications for X terminals and Unix workstations. This creates a problem because users need to access Windows applications, as well as X Window applications that are generally not available in a Windows environment. To solve this problem, WRQ provides WRQ Reflection X, a PC X server, which allows Windows desktops to display X Window applications running in a Unix or Linux environment. I recently reviewed Reflection X by installing it on a Pentium II Windows 98 PC with 128MB of RAM, and used it to attach to applications running on Sun Solaris V2.6 and Red Hat Linux V7.1 hosts. Here's how it shook out and what you need to know about using Reflection X in a mixed Linux-Unix-Windows environment.
Getting started
Reflection X runs on Windows XP, 2000, NT 4.0, 98, 95, and ME desktops and also Windows Terminal Server Edition and Citrix MetaFrame environments. The product occupies 97MB of storage for a complete (one language) installation and 137MB of storage for a complete (multi-language) installation on a Windows client, and about 54MB for a typical install. Installation is done through the Windows installer and Reflection X can usually be installed in under10 minutes.
With this product, X Window applications can be located and displayed inside the X Client Manager or through the X Client Wizard (figures 1 and 2, respectively). Session configurations are stored as Reflection X client files (.rxc) within Microsoft Windows, and an X session is activated by clicking on an .rxc file or a shortcut.
The first time you open the X Client Manager, the program will prompt you as to whether it should run the Performance Tuner option. This optional but recommended step attempts to optimize your CPU, video driver and operating system parameters to work with Reflection X. You only need to run Performance Tuner once, and the tuner automatically adds a series of keywords to the Windows registry.Because it only takes a minute or two, it's worthwhile to run the tuner directly after installation.
Startup hitches and solutions
While Reflection X does a good job of quickly creating Windows-based sessions for remote X Window applications, there...