6.0 Accessing Remote Desktops with Nomad

Nomad (Novell Open Mobile Agile Desktop) ships with SUSEĀ® Linux Enterprise and allows you to run desktop sessions detached from any graphics hardware. It consists of the following core components:

Proxy X Server

Supports modern X extensions like Composite, XVideo and RANDR.

Session Manager

Responsible for spawning and keeping track of desktop sessions that can be accessed remotely.

Connection Handler

Uses the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) as a transport and security layer. RDP is a multi-channel protocol that allows a user to connect to a computer running Microsoft Terminal Services. However, when supported by the client software, the connection handler uses a virtual X11 channel (rdpx11) that transfers unfiltered X11 traffic to the local X server displaying the desktop. The connection handler can always fall back to plain RDP commands if necessary, which means that remote desktops can be accessed from any existing RDP client.

Client Program

A special RDP client is provided for SUSE Linux Enterprise that implements Nomad-specific extensions for X11 protocol forwarding and the ability to composite remote desktops locally when appropriate compositing manager plug-ins are loaded.

Compositing Manager Extensions

Compositing allows for advanced visual effects of application windows, such as transparency, fading, scaling, contorting, shuffling and redirecting.

Nomad lets you remotely access desktops from different physical locations. For example, you can access the same session from home or from work. After an interruption of your work session, just move to another terminal and resume work there. It is also possible to copy the currently running environment to a mobile device like a laptop. With Nomad you can also share desktops for collaboration or training purposes, allowing remote control and administration.