[jpstewart]

>rsh remote_station_name
>setenv DISPLAY local_station_name:0.0

I hoped there exist solutions like this on linux.

On Linux these days, rsh is often a symlink to ssh. 

You can do 'ssh -X octane' from the Linux box, assuming you have an SSH server running on the Octane.  And it handles setting the DISPLAY environment variable automatically for you.  (Depending on which version of SSH is running on the IRIX side, you may have to tweak some settings to allow older algorithms that are now deprecated on Linux.)

I'm on Debian where there's an 'rsh-redone-client' package that will install a real rsh client.  Then you can do 'xhost +octane' followed by your old rsh & setenv commands and that should work, too.  I'd only do that on a trusted LAN, for security reasons.

As Raion pointed out, some stuff may not forward correctly.  GL apps in particular.  I've often had trouble with gr_osview not displaying on Linux, for example.  But plenty of other stuff just works.