[Pkg-x2go-devel] Bug#655618: ITP: nx-libs -- NX protocol libraries and binaries

[Mike Gabriel]

Hi Stefan,

I am discussing here being in a double role. I am part of X2Go  
upstream, redistributing the nx-libs tarballs and also member of the  
Debian X2Go packaging team.

On Fr 13 Jan 2012 00:37:57 CET Stefan Lippers-Hollmann wrote:

> Hi
>
> On Friday 13 January 2012, Mike Gabriel wrote:
>> Package: wnpp
>> Version: N/A; reported 2012-01-06
>> Severity: wishlist
>>
>> * Package name : nx-libs
>>    Version : 3.5.0.3
>>    Upstream Author : Mike Gabriel, Oleksandr Shneyder, Reinhard Tartler
>> * URL : wiki.x2go.org
>> * License : GPLv2
>>    Description : NX protocol libraries and binaries
> [...]
>>    NX (redist) aka nx-libgs.git on: http://git.x2go.org
>>    http://code.x2go.org/gitweb?p=nx-libs.git;a=summary
>>    - full code base -> master branch
>>    - lite/client-only code base -> client-only branch
>
> This appears to still contain a full (according to its size and a short
> look at your packaging git),

The packaging Git is on Alioth:
http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/x2go/nx-libs.git;a=summary

Do you refer to that one?

The redistributor's Git of NX (redistributed) is on X2Go Git:
http://code.x2go.org/gitweb?p=nx-libs.git;a=summary

> forked monolithic X.org 6.9 source tree.

This is indeed the case.

> Most likely with little to no bug-/ security fixes since 2005 - or am
> I missing anything vital in that packaging git? Likewise the current
> debian/copyright appears to lack all copyright notices of the original
> XFree86/ X.org code, which makes up, by far, most of the source.

The X2Go upstream team will be open to security and feature patches  
and will love to be pointed at security issues discovered. In the very  
very very long run there might be someone (we are currently talking  
about people in Austria being interested in such a project) who  
refactors NX for latest Xorg code, but currently what we can provide  
is an active maintenance of NoMachine's code.

And: NoMachine has lately released several tarballs around NX, please refer to
http://www.nomachine.com/sources.php

or check out the separate tarball import branches on nx-libs.git on X2Go Git.

> What are the plans for its future maintenance, given that NoMachine NX4
> appears to switch to a closed source development model and is likely to
> abandon the NX 3.5 code base rather soon? In a similar fashion FreeNX
> appears to be dead upstream since November 2008 (and already was dead
> way before that).

We are not packaging for FreeNX. We intend to package NX for usage  
with X2Go. And X2Go has been continuously active during the last  
years, esp. during 2011.

However, what we took care of is that the way we redistribute latest  
NX sources does not interfere with FreeNX code and also provides all  
FreeNX functionalities. One reason for FreeNX becoming less and less  
active probably was the trouble getting nx-X11 into Debian.

The placing of a redistributor between Linux distros and the original  
tarball provider NoMachine (who has not proved to be active on  
incorporating patches) aims at becoming more flexible and open to  
contributions here.

> Wouldn't it make more sense to concentrate on filling the gaps to
> re-use something like Red Hat's SPICE protocol for remote desktop uses?

No, performance tests fail for us compared to NX. All technologies  
around apart from NX use capturing algorithms and they scale quite  
badly on low-bandwidth networks.

> Regards
> 	Stefan Lippers-Hollmann
>
> Disclaimer:	I've had my bite with trying to package early NX 1.x,
> 			NX 2.x versions intended for Debian, but the sheer
> 			amount of forked upstream code (in particular nx-x11)
> 			and, back then, nxssh, samba, rdesktop, esound made
> 			those attempts appear to be an endeavour in futility.
> 			However I didn't actually follow development in this
> 			arena since the early NX 3 era.

Things are moving so may I invite to take another look?

Thanks for your open and honest feedback.

Mike



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