Run GNU/Linux applications on Windows using SSH
It is possible to run applications from a GNU/Linux host on Windows using SSH. Why could you ever want to do that? I don’t know, maybe you are a linux admin but you have to work with a Windows workstation or maybe you just want to show your friends how cool you are (because running linux apps on windows is damn cool!). Whatever may be the reason you have you should know that doing that it’s very simple, all you need is a linux host with an SSH server installed and an X server installed on your windows machine, we are going to use Xming.
First, you must have an SSH server. You can use the OpenSSH packages provided by your distribution. On Ubuntu you can install it with sudo apt-get install openssh-server. You should find out how to install it on your distribution, it may even be already installed but you better check out.
Once your SSH server is installed on the Linux server, install Xming on your Windows client. After installing the X server, start XLaunch from the start menu and select the following options:
- On the first screen select “Multiple windows”
- On the second one “Start a program”
- On the third screen enter the application you want to launch on “Start program”. By default xterm is selected but you can launch any other application. Select “Run remote – using PuTTY” and specify the server address, user name and password.
- On the final screen leave the default options in place, click “Next” and “Finish”.
Now you have a GNU/Linux application running “locally” on your Windows box, although it’s really running on your Linux host, keep that in mind because all the files you open or save will be from your Linux machine.
Finally, here is a screenshot of firefox, gcalctool and xterm running on Windows XP.
1 comment
That's nice! But you need to have one linux server to run the apps. It's easier to install linux and do a dual-boot don't you think?
— thefrik Fri, 26 Feb 2010