CentOS vs. RDP

Since I've been wrapping up the proxy project for the last few months, I've been spending a lot of time on my CentOS laptop writing my magnum opus, although due to format constraints I have to use Word in Windows over an RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) session.  And I'm finding CentOS—or maybe CentOS's implementation of X—has some problems.  See below (click for full size).

For the most part RDP is OK, but "Ls" and "t's" in certain places get reversed.  I thought this may be a problem with rdesktop, the standard RDP client that ships stock with most Linux distros, so I downloaded and built freerdp... with the exact same results.  I had a similar issue with rdesktop on Debian r4.0 back when it first came out.  Besides the reversed characters, it also had the nasty habit of crashing constantly on any slightly challenging display.  Rebuilding it took care of everything on Debian.

Not so on CentOS.

So I'm just living with it.  The problem didn't show up in any application until I fired up that PuTTy session above.  If during your RDP session you hit Alt-PrintScreen and paste it into MSPaint, the fonts are correct!  (The capture above was done in Linux)  In fact, if you change the PuTTy font size while in RDP the display gets better. It's still screwed up, but not as much, which is what leads me to believe it's an X issue.

As usual I can find no other human being on the planet with this particular problem.

CentOS being CentOS (highly stable and reliable and therefore not bleeding edge), this issue will probably not go away for a long time.

UPDATE!

I RDP'd to my Windows 7 laptop from CentOS (via rdesktop) for the first time and was surprised to see that the Aero theme wasn't disabled.

I'm not a big fan of Aero (in fact I really couldn't care less), but it is disabled whenever you start a Windows-to-Windows RDP session.  A good thing, too, because RDP chokes on heavy graphics.  It was pretty sluggish at first, but once all the graphics were cached, it was very usable.

I haven't made up my mind whether it's a bug or a feature.

Chrome on CentOS AT LAST!

I'm not a big fan of CentOS but I've been compelled to run it for a couple of reasons. The first being I need something compatible (and free) that's compatible with the Red Hat systems we have at the Salt Mines. CentOS is Red Hat with all the branding removed to make it free.

The other reason is this old (circa 2005) Sony Vaio laptop I inherited from my kid, Inky Dink, shown at left. Installing Linux on it was pure Hell. CentOS is the only Linux distribution that runs on it and doesn't crash, and it's actually a pleasure to run it (the touchpad is super flaky but I usually use a USB mouse with it anyway).

And that in itself is the reason I have a love/hate relationship with CentOS. The stability comes at a price: everything about it is old.

Because it's old you just can't get the latest and greatest version of anything. Then again, because it's Red Hat compatible almost everything is available for it.

Almost! Chrome isn't. Google doesn't distribute a compatible version. But these folks in the UK hacked together a distribution that really works.

I'm using it now to write this. I have been using Opera, but it dogs down in places where I need it to perform, specifically Google Maps (I'm quite proud of this and I need to update it every day).

In typical Chrome fashion, everything is just plain fast.

I'll definitely be using this laptop a lot more in the future.

Now if I could only play UT on it... hmmm...