You wrote (in your message from  8)
 > > For simple convenience you really do want to run your window manager on
 > > the machine you're going to be using primarily, and that's easiest to do
 > > by running xdm on that server and logging into it directly -- run only
 > > the X11 "server" process on your desktop machine. 
 > 
 > Can one still run with des/cookie xauthentication when one does that?
 > Normally xdm hides away an authentication file, such as
 > /var/run/authdir/authfiles/A:0-00221a so that all involved parties can
 > have access to the same authentication keys.

If you use xdm on the "machine you're going to be using primarily"
too, you can just start 'xdm -query <host>' on the X server. The
authentification  will be done using the XDMCP protocol. That's how X
terminals work. 

-- 
					Matthieu