Responsive lightweight remote GUI connection

Question

Currently I know several methods of connecting to a GUI remotely, or running GUI applications remotely:

1. Microsoft Terminal Services (only works for remote windows; installation);
2. VNC (it's slow);
3. XDMCP (requires a remote X server running, has no session persistance);
4. Local X as remote DISPLAY for applications (best solution, but - no session persistance).

We are trying to create Solaris development environments that can replace local workstations for our developers. So one of the requirements is session persistence, and/or session mobility. And another requirement is for it to be fast, and it has to run on Solaris/UNIX.

Are there any lightweight solutions for this?

Answer 1

Either NoMachine (http://www.nomachine.com/) or FreeNX (http://freenx.berlios.de/) sounds like what you want. Fast, keeps session if your connection drops and even works over SSH so your connections are encrypted.