> I really wish people gave a damn about the “gui over the network” problem x11 solves.

Security-wise there are concerns but...

Early dial-up Internet days (early for me), 28.8k modem, I was already running Linux, probably on a 486. I also had a very old PC laptop (I think a friend of my parents gifted it to me after he got a new one from work), a 386 I think (with the horrible slow display/refresh rate: a TFT IIRC). I used a parallel cable and PLIP (Parallel Line IP) and X11 networking to send a window manager+browser from the desktop (the 486) to the laptop.

So my brother and I could both go on the Internet at the same time.

It felt like the future and, honestly, we've kinda seriously regressed when it comes to "GUI over the network".

Your story here also illustrates why GUI over the network used to be a much more important use case than it currently is.

These days it’s unbelievably niche, as opposed to more controlled screen sharing scenarios. I think it’s understandable that it doesn’t get a high priority.