X forwarding (running software with GUI)

X forwarding allows you to remotely run software with graphical interface, but visualize it in your local machine. This may be useful to run a browser (and download content directly on the workstation), MATLAB, a file viewer, or any other piece of software that can't be accessed from the command line. Please keep in mind that this should be adopted as a last resort only, as running graphical application through the network is considerably slow.

On Linux, all you have to do is connect to the workstation with the following command:

ssh -X ml_workstation

On OS X, you have to make sure to have XQuartz installed and be using its terminal app to run the command.

Once you are connected, simply launch the graphical application from the terminal (e.g. type firefox) and it will appear on a new window.

For more information, including how to get this to work on Windows, please refer to this guide