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List:       kde
Subject:    Re: KDE/X Windows vs. Citrix Winframe
From:       Cristian Tibirna <ctibirna () total ! net>
Date:       1999-05-13 20:48:33
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On Thu, 13 May 1999, Kevin Anthoney wrote:

> Citrix's stated rule of thumb for server size is one pentium per 10-15 average
> users, with 5-8Mb RAM per user, and 15-20Mb page file space per user. (Our dual
> pentium pro, 512Mb server copes well with 35 users.)

I can offer a live example of an installation where 4 dual-pentiumII
Compaq Proliant servers with 2Gb or RAM each can't hold charge of more
than 60 users at same time. The fact that the DB software used on top is
extremely crash-prone "helps" a lot.

> The Winframe equivalent of the X Windows protocol is called ICA. They
> say that it's optimised for low bandwidth, and they mean it - they
> claim it's typically 20Kb/s (that's kilo*bits* per second. Screen
> redraws are a bit slow ;-), but it means that it can easily work over
> a modem.)

ICA uses (cached, zonal updated) bitmap images to build the remote
display. If you need something similar for Unix, use VNC. The difference
to X seems to by that highly optimized throughput tends to slow down a lot
the decoding. I read somewhere that carefully (network carrier) optimized
X can do a lot better given the vectorial "inclinations" of X.

> Anyway, I'd be really interested to know what the equivalent figures would be
> for a KDE/X Windows environment.

X through a modem is not really worth considering without learning a lot
about how to optimize X's network bandwidth (there is valuable docu on
this, though).

ICA could be faster, but when wanting to base OS choice decisions on
remote graphics display capabilities, better to compare ICA to VNC. VNC
beats the crap out of ICA because is a complete cross-platform solution
(runs on anything, I even heard of palmpilot ports).

Cristian

Cristian Tibirna     : ctibirna@total.net     : www.total.net/~ctibirna
PhD Student          : ctibirna@gch.ulaval.ca : web.gch.ulaval.ca/~ctibirna
KDE contact - Canada :  tibirna@kde.org       : www.kde.org

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