Unnecessary A coherence feature would be unnecessary. You can just connect to the Linux machine (ssh) and programs will run on the Mac OS desktop anyway (X11.app). Or am I overlooking something here? Is drag and drop so important?
ssh X11 tunnelling works fine with Parallels Indeed, Leauki is correct. This is the way I run Linux apps on my Macbook Pro, and it works just fine. There is no noticeable UI latency going across the Parallels shared network, as can be the case when tunnelling to a remote machine.
You're evidence to state it's unnecessary really shows shows how trivial it would be for Parallels to implement. While I agree that you offer a superb work around, but it would be much handier if this could be done somewhat automatically. Parallels could manage the ssh tunneling on it's own and simply offer a way for me to place an app icon in my dock.
Not sure how it could be done any more automatically. It already is pretty automatic. I connect to the Linux VM and X programs use Mac OS' X11.app. Making X apps appear in the dock would be something for Apple to implement in X11.app. Parallels' implementation could potentially screw up other X11 features.
Tadah! See attached As other people have pointed out, the technical capibility is already there using X11 and ssh (Actually, using the encrypted SSH method is an unnecessary overhead when you're not using a public network - it just shortcuts the work of setting up permissions and protections needed to do it over straight TCP). However, the screenshot was taken by running openoffice directly from the command line - you'll notice (e.g.) that its using fugly fonts - these are set up via the gnome session. If you try to start a gnome-session this way it, well, almost works... I've also tried xfce4 (from xubuntu) which is a bit leaner and more flexible than the Gnome "if you don't want the menu bar where we put it learn C++ programming" desktop, but that just bombs. The only way I've found of running a "modern" Linux desktop through X11 is using "xnest" (which works quite nicely and sorts out the mouse etc. but is still a desktop-in-a-window) Maybe someone with a black belt in gnome/kde/X11 config files can come up with a nice configuration that works well? Also - I get the impression that TCP connections between the VM and the host OS are running at ethernet speeds (even though its a "virtual" network) which makes the eye-candy a bit sluggish in Gnome etc.
