NX technology
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|
| Initial release | 2003 |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 8.10.1
/ 6 November 2023 |
| Repository |
|
| Engine | |
| Size | 28 MB |
| Type | Remote desktop software |
| License | Freeware |
| Website | www |
NX technology, commonly known as NX or NoMachine, is a remote access and remote control computer software, allowing remote desktop access and maintenance of computers.<ref>Vladimir Blagojevic (2019-03-28), "NoMachine – Remote desktop based on NX technology", ITSM daily, archived from the original on September 27, 2022, retrieved 2023-06-14</ref> It is developed by the Luxembourg-based company NoMachine S.à r.l.. <ref>NoMachine.</ref> NoMachine is proprietary software and is free-of-charge for non-commercial use.<ref>Daniel Blechynden (2020-04-03), "NoMachine review—versatile free remote desktop access", TechRadar, archived from the original on March 14, 2022, retrieved 2023-06-14</ref>
History
NX's design was derived from the Differential X Protocol Compressor project (DXPC). In 2003, the compression and transport protocol NX was created to improve the performance of the native X display protocol so it could be used over slow connections such as dial-up modems. It wrapped remote connections in SSH sessions for encryption. The core compression technology was released under the GNU GPL2 license (NX 1) for Linux servers on February 14, 2003,<ref>Proxy Servers Lighten Up X, Slashdot</ref> whilst other components such as the NX Server and NX Client programs remained proprietary.<ref>Tom Adelstein (2005-06-06), "Linux in Government: Major Breakthrough in Linux Technology", Linux Journal, archived from the original on April 8, 2022, retrieved 2023-06-14</ref> The last update to this open-source version was released in 2012. In 2010, the company announced they would be releasing the technology under a proprietary license.<ref>NX Compression Technology To Go Closed Source, Slashdot</ref> In 2013, NX became closed-source<ref>Delivering remote Mac, Linux and Windows desktops with NoMachine NX, brianmadden.com</ref> and it was in 2013 that NX software became NoMachine software.
Features
NoMachine is available for most desktop computers with common operating systems, including Microsoft Windows and Windows Server, as well as Apple's macOS.<ref>Sergiu Gatlan, "NoMachine for Mac", Softpedia, archived from the original on April 30, 2017, retrieved 2023-06-14</ref> There are also packages for several Linux distributions and derivatives, for example, Debian, Ubuntu,<ref>Josphat Mutai (2022-07-02), "Install NoMachine RDP on Ubuntu", Computing for Geeks, archived from the original on July 11, 2022, retrieved 2023-06-14</ref> Red Hat, CentOS<ref>Hitesh Jethva, "Install and Use NoMachine Remote Desktop on CentOS", HowtoForge, archived from the original on March 24, 2023, retrieved 2023-06-14</ref> and Fedora Linux. There is also a version which can run on distribution variants for Linux ARM devices, including Raspberry Pi OS.<ref>Emmet (2023-03-01), "Using NoMachine on the Raspberry Pi", PiMyLifeUp, archived from the original on April 15, 2023, retrieved 2023-06-14</ref> An app is available which allows users to connect from smartphones and tablets running Android or Apple's iOS/iPadOS operating system.
NoMachine Terminal Server Family for Linux also offers the ability to run multiple virtual Linux desktops on a Linux server which are remotely accessed over a network connection. Images rendered on the server are compressed and encoded and then sent to the client for decryption and decompression. NX utilizes uses a combination of video and image encoding based on standard codecs and a number of techniques developed by NoMachine as well as VirtualGL to access high-end OpenGL-based X11 applications and 3D CAD programs.
NoMachine NX 4 and later versions
NoMachine's NX technology uses optimal image compression and caching with the latest video-encoding techniques. When connecting hosts across the network, the NX protocol works as a generic tunnel, with additional framing and flow control information, and dynamically adapts compression and bandwidth according to network speed and capacity. The display protocol uses a combination of video and image encoding, based on standard codecs and a number of techniques developed by NoMachine. NX monitors display and user activity to adapt quality and buffering to the displayed application.
Authentication
From version 4.0 on, when the default NX protocol is used, the login can be via password-based authentication, private key or Kerberos ticket authentication.
When NX is configured to send its data by SSH (available only on enterprise-version servers), the following authentication methods are available:
Client to Server
- NX login as NX user using the NX SSH key and user password-based authentication
- System login with password-based authentication
- System login with SSH key-based authentication
- System login with SSH key-based authentication and SSH key stored on a smart card
- System login with Kerberos ticket existing on client side
Server to Node
- Login with password
- Login with SSH key forwarded from client (e.g. NoMachine Player) via server to node
- Login with Kerberos ticket forwarded from client via server to node
- Login with Kerberos ticket requested by Kinit on server host
- Login with Kerberos ticket requested by PAM module on server host.
- Login with password to Kerberos ticket requested by PAM module on node host
Legacy technology
NX compresses the X11 data to minimize the amount of data transmitted, and caches data to keep the session as responsive as possible. For example, the first time a menu is opened, it may take a few seconds, but is subsequently almost instant.
NX is faster than its predecessors, as it eliminates most of the X round trips, while dxpc and MLView only compress data.
The two principal components of NX are nxproxy and nxagent. nxproxy is derived from dxpc and is started on both the remote (client in X terminology) and local (server in X terminology) machines, simulating an X server on the client and forwarding remote X protocol requests to the local X server.
Simplest setup:<ref name="NX build">"Building and using NX components". NoMachine. 2015-05-22. Retrieved 2015-08-21.</ref>
remote clients (xterm, etc.)
↕
nxproxy client
↕
Network
↕
nxproxy server
↕
local X server (monitor/keyboard)
nxproxy alone achieves 1:10 to 1:1000 compression ratios,<ref>Building and using NX components, NoMachine.</ref> reducing bandwidth, but does not eliminate most of X's synchronous round trips, responsible for most of X's perceived latency.
nxagent, derived from Xnest (similar to Xephyr), is typically started on the remote (client) machine, thus avoiding most X11 protocol round trips. Together with nxproxy (built into nxagent), this setup performs well over low-bandwidth and high-latency links.
Typical setup:<ref name="NX build"/>
remote clients (xterm, etc.)
↕
nxagent server side \
nxagent client side nxagent executable
nxproxy client /
↕
Network
↕
nxproxy server
↕
local X server (monitor/keyboard)
On systems with a functional X11 implementation, nxproxy and nxagent are all that is needed to establish a connection with low-bandwidth requirements between a set of remote X clients and the local X server. SSH can be used to establish a secure tunnel between the hosts. NX 3 relies on SSH functionalities and existing open-source SSH software, making it possible to run contemporary Unix and Windows desktops and arbitrary network applications over the Internet in a secured and controlled way.
FreeNX and the various NX Clients are used for setup, handling suspend and resume, secure tunnelling over SSH, and printing and sound.
Other display protocols
NoMachine's NX protocol allow client connections to hosts via Remote Desktop Protocol (for Windows Remote Desktop Services sessions) and remote Virtual Network Computing sessions (most modern general-purpose operating system platforms), as well as XDM.
NX derivatives and forks
Prior to version 4.0, NoMachine released core NX technology under the GNU General Public License, and offered non-free commercial NX solutions,<ref>NX Terminal Server and Remote Access Software (product details), NoMachine.</ref> free client and server products for Linux and Solaris, and free client software for Microsoft Windows, macOS and embedded systems.
Due to the free-software nature of older NX releases, the FreeNX project was started to provide wrapper scripts for the GPL NX libraries.<ref>"FreeNX – the free NX". DE: Berlios. Archived from the original on 2013-11-11. Retrieved 2014-02-14.</ref> FreeNX was developed and maintained by Fabian Franz, but has not announced a release since 2008.<ref>FreeNX (project page), DE: Berlios.</ref>
2X Software has developed another commercial terminal server for Linux using the NX protocol.<ref>"2X TerminalServer for Linux Features". 2X. Archived from the original on January 16, 2012. Retrieved 2016-03-30..</ref>
On July 7, 2009, Google announced their open-source NX server, Neatx, as an internal project.<ref>"Releasing Neatx, an Open Source NX Server", Open source (World Wide Web log), Google, Sep 2009.</ref>[which?] The project had no releases and is not actively developed. Its source code is available under the GNU GPL v2 license.<ref>"Neatx", Code, Google.</ref>
X2Go is based on the 3.x NX libraries, but is not compatible with other implementations.<ref>"X2Go – everywhere@home". 2013-12-28. Retrieved 2014-02-14.</ref><ref>FAQ, X2go.</ref> The client and server are released under a combination of GNU GPLv2 or later, and GNU AGPLv3 or later.<ref>License information, X2go.</ref>
Clients
The primary NX clients are the official freeware, NoMachine, and NoMachine Enterprise Client. Several open-source projects can also use the NX protocol but many of these OSS projects do not work with more recent versions of the official NX software.
An OS mature project was Lawrence Roufail's nxc client library, a full library which can be used for other clients to build upon. The nxrun application utilizes this library. As of 2006[update], the library does not allow suspending or resuming sessions, and uses only JPEG graphics compression.
The kNX project was a proof-of-concept application written by Joseph Wenninger, with plans for it to eventually become a complete NX client to show that an open-source client could be written. Its development was halted before it was completed. In late 2005, Fabian Franz and George Wright began modifying kNX to use the nxc library, but abandoned the project.
More recent open-source efforts include QtNX, which offers full suspend and resume. However, it has been reported as incompatible with the most recent NX libraries.
Nxcl, an update to nxclientlib, the core of QtNX, was completed by Seb James in September 2007, and works with version 3 of the NX core libraries.[citation needed] It also drops dependency on Qt, which prevented nxclientlib from becoming widely used as a cross-platform basis for NX client programs. nxcl provides a library that can be linked to a client program (libnxcl), and a self-contained NX client with a D-Bus API (the nxcl binary). It is available from the FreeNX Subversion server.
Another obsolete (last updated Jan 2013) OSS NX client is OpenNX, described as a "drop-in replacement for NoMachine's [proprietary] nxclient" with full suspend and resume.
Various open-source terminal server projects, such as X2Go, also use the NX protocol. However, X2Go is not compatible with other NX servers or clients.
Remmina, another recent GTK+ remote desktop client project, announced the ability to use the NX protocol in its release 0.8.
Previous X11 compression schemes
- Low Bandwidth X (lbxproxy; obsolete and of historical interest only)
See also
- Comparison of remote desktop software
- GNU Screen – a terminal multiplexer for console-mode (text-mode) applications
- Xpra – a system for attaching and detaching remote X programs
- xmove – a tool allows you to move programs between X Window System displays (outdated)
References
External links
- Official website
- X2Go X2Go Introduction Page
- FreeNX project page on BerliOS.
- FreeNX project page at Arch Linux.
- OpenNX project page, SourceForge.
