What about a thin-client? In other words reduce the bandwidth by running on the remote server only those jobs that need to.
Yes, that's what I had in mind. Sorry if I wasn't clear enough on that.

On the server you need to edit the /etc/sshd_config file and set the "X11Forwarding" line to "yes" instead of "no". This way you can log in using SSH to the server, execute a program - say, xeyes - and have it displayed on the local screen. It will act exactly as if you had it installed locally. If you open up a graphical editor (vim, kedit, or something) and save files the files will be stored on the server.

If you want to let apps launched on your local computer use the server's disk for storage (saving work, etc) that would mean setting up a little more advanced setup (possibly involving NFS shares). I haven't done that so I can't help you with it - sorry.

But you could do it the quick and ugly way by simply running the application locally, and when done upload your files to the server using FTP. I imagine that's not a very attractive option though.

hw