Comment Re:Huh? (Score 1) 382
"Showing" isn't about the server or client. You can have a server-client connection without showing anything.
Besides that you missed the concept of "example", you focused on "showing", where the key word was "request". You request something of a server and receive a reply action. The confusion here is that X-Server machine is CLIENT to user request to display something but it is a SERVER to the program doing the actual displaying.
It's actually quite simple: The server controls a resource, and the client uses that resource through the server. For example the file server controls the files, and the clients connect to it to access them. The web server controls the web pages, and the web clients connect to it to access them. The sound server controls the sound device, and the clients connect to it to access them. And the display server controls the display, and the clients connect to it to use that display.
Yes, except it is not so simple because you are missing the human factor. The trouble comes from definitions and how they are interpreted. For example you state that a "sounds server" serves sound output (i.e. sound card) but you can just as well call a shoutcast server a "sound server" - which is the opposite. Now you and I understand that they are both "servers", and that when someone listens to a shoutcast server they are a client to the shoutcast server AND a client to a sound card server and that they are two separate sessions, but to a lay-person this is not obvious in the least.
I guess the real reason for the confusion is that for many people, "server" means "big machine somewhere else". While the X server is on the possibly small machine in front of you.
Pretty much.
-Em