[CentOS] An odd X question

Marko Vojinovic
2015-06-25T22:02:41Z

On Thu, 25 Jun 2015 15:55:41 -0400
m.roth at 5-cent.us wrote:
>
>      mark "and why is it called xorg-x11-server, when in X
> terminology, it's the client?"*
>
> * Which I always thought was bass-ackward, but...

You should think of it this way: the program that wants something drawn
on the screen is a client; the program that does the drawing is the
server. The client asks the server to draw stuff on the screen, and
server is, well... servicing those requests, from various clients.

So the server is always the local Xorg process that draws your display,
while any remote or local program that wants things drawn on it is the
client.

The fact that one of them is remote and the other local is of
course completely irrelevant for the client/server terminology,
contrary to common opinion.

This last thing is what confuses people --- they usually think of the
word "server" as "the remote machine", while
"client" is "the local
machine". That is the wrong way to understand the words server and
client.

HTH, :-)
Marko