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.<br>
<br>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.<br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 6:09 PM, Matthew T. Gibbs <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mtgibbs@yahoo.com">mtgibbs@yahoo.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div><div style="font-family: 'times new roman','new york',times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"><div>Hi John-</div><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">
<div style="font-family: 'times new roman','new york',times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>HTH</div><div><br></div><div>Matt</div><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">
<br><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"><font size="2" face="Tahoma"><hr size="1"><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">From:</span></b> John Bulger <<a href="mailto:johnbulger@uicalumni.org" target="_blank">johnbulger@uicalumni.org</a>><br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> <a href="mailto:ufo@ufo.chicago.il.us" target="_blank">ufo@ufo.chicago.il.us</a><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Fri, November 6, 2009 2:46:13 AM<br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> [UFO Chicago] remote desktop software<br></font><div class="im"><br>
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.<br>
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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:<br>
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<a rel="nofollow" href="http://ask.metafilter.com/60688/What-are-the-limitations-of-current-remote-desktop-applications" target="_blank">http://ask.metafilter.com/60688/What-are-the-limitations-of-current-remote-desktop-applications</a></span><br>
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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.<div class="im">
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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?<br>
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Finally, if anyone wishes to recommend a laptop suitable for this purpose, please let me know.<br>
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Thanks.<br>
<br>
John
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