X

The technology used to provide the remote display feature is called simply ``X'' and has been the standard on UNIX systems for decades. The approach is simple enough. The display at which the user sits is called the X Server as it provides the physical display hardware. The central database which runs the applications (eg Quest) is the X Client.

The user starts an X server, logs into the website and tells it the address of his X Display eg helge.ucd.ie:0.0. They then initiate a process such as Quest. The central database starts Quest and tells it the address of the physical display to use (helge.ucd.ie:0.0). Now Quest connects ¹¹ over the network to the user's computer and it's display appears on their X server.