Andrew Lietzow wrote:
Dear SuSE Wizards,
I have sold an application for years that has a *nix backend but traditionally terminals or PC with terminal emulators running Telnet clients at the front end. What do I use if I want to run Linux at the Desktop with Linux at the Server?
Basically, I think I'm looking for a Telnet Client like what is offered by the James River Group but not for windoze but for Linux.
Linux, in fact all Unixes, come with a telnet client as standard. It'll be installed as a matter of course when you install practically any distribution except perhaps the most starved of embedded systems. Just type "telnet <hostname>" at a console prompt. However, the use of Telnet is not encouraged in this day and age as it offers zero security - everything, including the password you use to log into the remote machine, is passed down the line in clear-text. These days ssh is more to be preferred. All server/workstation linux distributions that I know of also include OpenSSH to do this job. Think of ssh as telnet with encryption, plus a few other tricks, like X forwarding (simplifying running X applications on remote machines). You don't need to have any ssh-aware support in your server-side application - people can just log in using ssh and run it in the same way as they'd log in using telnet and run it. kssh, part of KDE, is a simple but friendly GUI front-end to ssh. However, for your application it would be simpler and nicer just to create a KDE application shortcut that puts them straight into the remote application - ie: with an Execute line something like "ssh <hostname> <application>" and select "Run in terminal window". Then users just have to click on that button on their desktop and they're in - especially if you set up keys and a keychain rather than requiring them to enter passwords. If the console app ever gets replaced by a GUI app, it's easy just to add in a "-X" in front of the hostname and don't run in a terminal window, and it should run seamlessly. -- Rachel