[fxwin]

OP is not ready for corporate environments if "VPN + ssh + 2FA" already "feels like too much" lol

I also wonder how they didn't come across X Forwarding at all? When i used a remote machine for my thesis that was one of the first things i set up, just so i could do small experiments on GPU and look at results more easily.

Basically every issue they seem to have is solved by using VSCode + Remote development (Transferring files, Customizing hotkeys, looking at outputs)

>And as for compute, I also realised that there are many small tasks that can actually be run on my machine

Yes, if you have a $3000 Computer, you can do many things that other people would need to use remote compute for. Depending on the "Cluster" they are talking about, the mac might even have better specs lol

[jltsiren]

The default VSCode configuration can cause problems in HPC clusters. VSCode likes to crawl the files it can see repeatedly. If you have a few users, it doesn't matter. But with many concurrent users and many files, it can destroy file system performance.

[azalemeth]

Most clusters I use are architected assuming you use vim and look at graphics locally. I do. I also use img-cat. I've never liked VSCode anything.

[linksnapzz]

Every user should get their own vscode endpoint, on a severely underprovisioned VM with 10mb/sec access to the cluster filesystem.

[_notreallyme_]

Most issues can be solved by RTFM. They don't seem to have ever considered that...

[icedchai]

Don't forget ZScaler and other corporate spyware.

[linksnapzz]

>OP is not ready for corporate environments if "VPN + ssh + 2FA" already "feels like too much" lol

Sad that it's necessary, but it's still a shitty environment. That employers foist it on their employees doesn't make it better.

>I also wonder how they didn't come across X Forwarding at all?

Xforwarding over VPN+residential broadband sounds like a great way to ...not use any sort of gui app.

[gregdaniels421]

> Xforwarding over VPN+residential broadband sounds like a great way to ...not use any sort of gui app.

During COVID I had the wonderful opportunity to remote into a work computer that had a Matlab license and watch the screen slowly paint in. Each keystroke took multiple seconds to display for me.

[linksnapzz]

X was never, ever, designed for high-latency networks. I don't understand what people are thinking when they recommend that use-case for X apps.

[tjoff]

x2go can be a bit janky but when setup correctly it can deliver the promise of x-forwarding with good performance even over internet.

Love the ability to just forward one or several applications directly instead of the whole desktop environment. Ability to resume connections are also a godsend.

Seems like that usecase isn't given a lot of effort nowadays.

[throw0101a]

I remoted into my Linux desktop that was at my desk over SSH, and things ran fine with Xvnc: Firefox, Terminal, Thunderbird, etc. I was able to do my sysadmin job without issue.

[linksnapzz]

VNC-remoting an X desktop isn't X11 forwarding an application; the mechanism that is moving pixels to the screen where you're looking at them is distinct, and different.

[throw0101a]

I understand that: I remember when X11 was The Thing (I used to admin Sun sun4m workstations) and I remember when VNC was first invented by some folks at AT&T.

But this is an "XY problem" situation: what you want to get a GUI app running on a remote system to have its window display on the screen in front of you. Xvnc can accomplish that.

[fxwin]

Yea it's a shitty environment, it's just a "oh sweet summer child" kind of thing to say :)

I agree that X forwarding is a terrible way for GUI apps, but the OP read like they were just looking at logs or plots/visualizations without much interactivity. X forwarding is good enough for that (At least good enough to give it a try over scping files back and forth)