Ron Rechenmacher said...

|... could be on the same node (different X servers) or from different node 
|(same home dir via nfs).
|Currently, I've tried both kde and gnome and have had problems although I have 
|not done any configuration to address the issue.
|The issue/situation is this:
|I want to be able to log onto a physical console and also (while still logged 
|onto the physical console) start a vncserver (same user, hence same home dir 
|where configuration is stored) which will have the same (kde or gnome) 
|desktop/window manager as the physical console.

[snip]

|Anyway, does anyone out there have an experience with this situation or 
|similar?
|
|Oh, one answer could be to use a less sophisticate desktop/window manager 
|environment (i.e fvwm2) and not use icons but just have 
|desktop-click-pop-up-menus.

We've had a number of savvy users spend time on
this, and the answer they came up was always the
same-- use a different WM.

Lately, however, many of us have gotten away from
running a separate VNC server.  Is there a reason
not to just use the VNC extension of the X server
directly, or to run x11vnc?

The only downside I'm aware of to these is security;
while you're using them remotely they are viewable
(and useable) by someone locally.

OTOH, with many dual head cards, this is the only
way to go.

-Miles