[sams99]

I run a local Ubuntu VM for dev, the terminal you are seeing is gnome-terminal running tumx. I have a cygwin X Server running on my Windows box (startx). I then ssh -Y into my Ubuntu machine to get a proper terminal allowing my to fire off gvim and other X apps.

On my mac laptop its a simpler setup, but same thing works I 'ssh -Y' into my ubuntu vm. Effectively giving me 3 monitors.

If you are interested in a slightly simpler Windows setup you could look at http://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/

[kayoone]

Thanks! Very interesting. Are you running the VM only on the Workstation and ssh into it from the macbook or do you somehow sync it to be able to work from home as well ?

[sams99]

I work from home so I am cheating :) Stuff lives on the VM but I have a second identical setup on the Mac just in case I decide to take it out somewhere.

While at home I ssh from the Mac to my Ubuntu VM. A huge advantage of Linux is that mvim will not run over ssh -Y but gvim will.

[kayoone]

Cool, will play around with that on the weekend ;) Could the ubuntu VM run anywhere in the cloud or do you get latency issues with x11 forwarding over the net ?

I could also run the VM from the laptop and ssh -Y from the workstation or laptop locally to have a portable setup. But my Macbook Air is rather slow compared to the pc.

edit looks like latency is a major issue with X11 forwarding so i see why you do it this way...I guess for my purposes its easier to just use a complete Ubuntu VM to develop in and sync that between machines.