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Graphics Software

Shared Whiteboard Using GTK Or QT? 16

Posted by Cliff from the building-the-virtual-office dept.
Matts writes: "I work from home with a number of people from the U.S. (I live in Scotland). One thing I miss about an office is the ability to discuss things over a whiteboard. So I've been looking all over the Net for some sort of shared whiteboard facility so that I can work very quickly with short bits of text and/or drawings. The text bit is very important there. Unfortunately the only products I've found are either old and require Motif and other huge libraries, commercial, or written in Java." Many of us communicate best when we can draw pictures, and being able to scribble and chart over the Net using such an app is an extraordinary idea, especially for those of us working in the "Virtual Office".

"Other ones I've found are an add-on for mIRC (which I didn't even look at because I don't use Windows), and one called wb which appears to be part of the Mbone tools, which I couldn't find the source for and the binary for Linux wouldn't run. What I'm really after is something for either the Gnome or KDE toolkits, although straight GTK+ or QT would be just fine. Surely someone in the open source community has thought of this before - these were hot ideas when I was in university and everyone was building one!"
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Shared Whiteboard Using GTK or QT? More

Shared Whiteboard Using GTK or QT?

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  • Netmeeting is a H.323 client. There is a pproject to create an opensourced version here: http://www.openh323.org/ AFAIK it only does voice for now, but since a lot of people use Netmeeting, it may be something to look into. There's also a link section there to a lot of software using it. There might be something tehre.

    --
  • The Collaborative Computing Frameworks [emory.edu] project comprises UNIX based tools for collaborative work on computers. I haven't has a chance to look at it properly yet, but it looks like ot may be able to help you.
  • http://www.placeware.com

    Why bother implementing it, it's already out there for free as long as you hav a small group. For large groups, you have to get a license.

    Miguel
  • $400 dollars per seat? You consider this an option. Besides this looks like a web based hosted solution.
  • Sounds like what you really want is a groupware enabled Window Manager for X. I'm exposing my ignorance here, but couldn't a scriptable window manager like sawmill or one that supports plugins be a able to share windows over the network. I know X supports multiple mice and cursors on a display of 1 or more monitors, so you should in theory not have to fight each other for the cursor or leave emacs open to type "Ok, steve has the floor" ;-)
  • i haven't *used* this application, but i know it is ported to linux... static.net -barton
  • i checked out the app at static.net... it doesn't do what you're looking for.
    -barton

  • At least in my experience, Netmeeting doesn't seem to keep consistency between everyone's whiteboards very well. Drove me nuts, and I eventually gave up.

  • He could try using vmware or a similar product. If his machines have alot of RAM it may work well.

    There is also a program that allows you to exert remote control over a Unix shell session. Sun uses it for tech support. I do not remember the name of it though.

  • Collaborative Virtual Workspace (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    http://cvw.mitre.org/ [mitre.org]
  • Actually VNC is what we use right now, and it kinda works quite nicely. But I'd still like to see something with the following that is just a pure GTK or KDE app:

    An area you can draw on, with some simple primitives available. You should be able to do multiline text as though it were a text editor, and yet still draw anywhere on that text.

    The ability to select who is drawing from a list of logged on users. It would just put a big "pen" besides their name.

    Save to PNG.

    Unfortunately VNC doesn't really offer these, and no, firing up the GIMP in VNC isn't a great solution, IMHO, as it doesn't solve the "only one person has the pen" problem.
  • I hate to say it too, but did you miss the bit about me not using windows? I have one NT box in my office for testing Perl code on NT, but I only ever access it via VNC (it has no monitor). I can't imagine how nasty it would be to have to access a real time environment like a whiteboard over VNC, even on the local network, its just not fast.
  • If only that came without all the extra cruft with rooms and floors etc. We're only talking 2 or 3 people here, so at the moment we certainly don't need all that. However it does look very interesting, and I'm going to play with it a bit in the next few days.

    Thanks!

  • I think everyone is look at this issue in the completely incorrect way. Instead of aiming for such a feature limited application like "NetMeeting", why not just share desktops?

    Virtual Network Computing (VNC) [att.com] is what you seek. It runs on everything. On UNIX, it will give you multiple, virtual X-Windows sessions on a single box -- upto 99 by default -- which you can pump to Windows and other clients (even old DOS!) without a X-Server. It's basically pcAnywhere for everything, and then some (like multiple, virtual X-sessions)! I'm still finding more and more ways to use it. [ Heck, someone has even merged VNC with the NT GDI and made NT headless! ]

    Run your apps remotely! Not some limited remote application! [ Is everyone in IT a victim of Microsoft marketing and thinks "NetMeeting" is desirable? If you have remote display, like UNIX with VNC, you do NOT need "NetMeeting"! ]

    -- Bryan "TheBS" Smith

  • Straight from the VNC front page [att.com] under "What makes it different from other systems?":

    It is sharable. One desktop can be displayed and used by several viewers at once, allowing CSCW-style applications.

    [ CSCW = Computer Supported Cooperative Work ]

    Again, use the apps you are familiar with natively when you work cooperatively! Not some stupid, limited application (like "NetMeeting")!

    -- Bryan "TheBS" Smith

  • But Netmeeting does exactly what you want to do, if you can swallow your pride and use an MS product. I use netmeeting to collaborate with colleagues scattered across the usa. Of course it works best with MS office, so it may not be as useful for you. What apps do you use?

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