[UFO Chicago] remote desktop software

[Daniel Kelly]

I used the RDP server for linux on xubuntu 9.04 for a short period of time.
It does perform better than vnc, but I didn't think as well as RDP in
windows terminal services. Probably because it doesn't do bitmap caching and
all the draw commands quite the same way. X11VNC is going to be easier for
you to set up, and if you're talking about using relatively high end cpu's
and memory (like PIII+ &256M RAM or more) then you could take advantage of
SSH compression and drop the bits per pixel and what not on the VNC server.

The only reason I mention CPU and Ram is because on really low end systems
SSH encryption/decryption alone is enough to get your cpu load to 100% at a
very low bandwidth, throw in compression and it'd probably just be worse. A
good case in point was a few years ago when I was using a really old Pentium
200MHz w/ 64M ram system running linux 2.4 with only a small set of packages
for a router. I recall mounting an SMB share from a fast (at the time)
windows computer onto the filesystem (via 100mbit fd ethernet). While I was
at work I logged in and started transferring some large files, and I noticed
that the transfer rate was doggin. I fired up top and sure enough cpu was at
100%. I think I was using AES encryption too, without compression.

On Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 6:09 PM, Matthew T. Gibbs <mtgibbs at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Hi John-
>
> It looks like the site that you found covers the performance and security
> issues of VNC and RDP.  My suggestion for a Linux remote desktop would be
> the NoMachine NX software, which basically automates tunneling an X desktop
> session over SSH and has both Windows and Linux clients.  I've found that
> it's both secure and fast.  Another option would be RDP over SSH.  From my
> experience RDP performs better than VNC and I believe that there is an RDP
> component for the X server, though I've not used it personally.  I have used
> KRDC to access Windows RDP servers and it works very well.
>
> There is a caveat to all of this though - many corporate firewalls block
> SSH and likely also block simple VNC and RDP connections.  Of course, your
> mileage may vary, but I've not had good luck with this.
>
> HTH
>
> Matt
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* John Bulger <johnbulger at uicalumni.org>
> *To:* ufo at ufo.chicago.il.us
> *Sent:* Fri, November 6, 2009 2:46:13 AM
> *Subject:* [UFO Chicago] remote desktop software
>
> First off, I am not a programmer or system administrator, just a user. I do
> have an interest in migrating from Windows to one of the free UNIX style
> operating systems. Thus, the reason that I came across and subscribed to the
> mailing list.
>
> That said, I was looking into the possibility of using something like VNC
> to operate a desktop machine remotely on a lightweight, low cost laptop. My
> hope is that this way I can purchase the best hardware most cost effectively
> and still enjoy mobility. Anyway, I came across the site below:
>
>
> http://ask.metafilter.com/60688/What-are-the-limitations-of-current-remote-desktop-applications
>
> I would like to invite anyone interested to provide their own comments.
> Those on the site are more than a couple of years old and assume that
> Windows XP is being used. I personally would prefer recommendations based on
> UNIX, if that makes any difference. Some on the site would suggest using
> Microsoft's Remote Desktop. I may decide to maintain a copy of Windows on a
> partition of my machine, in which case Remote Desktop may be considered an
> option I suppose and comments on that are also welcome.
>
>
> LogMeIn and UltraVNC appear to be the other favorites. Hamachi, an add-on
> to LogMeIn was also recommended for avoiding any issues with firewalls
> though someone also suggests that they may just as easily be avoided by
> using a non-standard port for RDP and VNC clients. Again, anyone care to
> agree or disagree?
>
> Finally, if anyone wishes to recommend a laptop suitable for this purpose,
> please let me know.
>
> Thanks.
>
> John
>
> _______________________________________________
> UFO Chicago -- Users of Free Operating Systems
> Free Software Rules -- Proprietary Drools!
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