[CentOS] Please help me rate vnc, rdesktop, and freenx

Bill Campbell centos at celestial.com
Fri Dec 7 18:04:56 UTC 2007


On Thu, Dec 06, 2007, Brian Mathis wrote:
>On Dec 6, 2007 5:05 PM, Robert Moskowitz <rgm at htt-consult.com> wrote:
>> I have been dragging my feet on remote display, and have just gotten VNC
>> going to have SOMETHING to move off the start line.  But I need the
>> 'best' for different situations, so I want to rate them.
>>
>> 1 to 3 where 1 is the 'best' for the catagory and 3 the loser.
>>
>>                             VNC      RDESKTOP      FREENX
>>
>>
>> Server memory
>> Server cpu
>> client memory
>> client cpu
>> bandwidth
>>
>> thanks.  I AM search the net for this information.  So far have not
>> found the magic query request :)
>>
>
>There are numerous ways to remotely access a Linux machine, and
>honestly the "remote desktop" style that Windows uses is the worst of
>them.  VNC, rdesktop, and freenx all replicate that method of access,
>where you basically get a picture of what would be on the monitor if
>you were sitting at it.
>
>As was already mentioned, ssh is really the main way for remote
>access, but for people not familiar with Linux, there's no GUI and no
>mouse beyond copy/paste, so you may look for another solution.
>
>The real *NIX way of accessing a graphical application remotely is by
>using a remote X desktop.  It sounds strange if you're not familiar
>with it, but basically you run the 1 application on the remote server,
>and the application window (and only the application window), shows up
>on your local workstation.  SSH provides a way to do this securely.
>The drawback is you will need an X server running on your local
>computer, but that can be had for free in Windows from cygwin.

I don't Do Windows(tm) so rarely have to deal with them.  When
working with Linux and other *nix systems, it's always through
ssh with X11 forwarding for those rare occassions when I need to
do something like run Firefox from a client's machine to access a
router from their private LAN.  That can get a bit clunky on slow
connections, but it does work.

If I'm on a fast connection, I'll run the xterm on the remote
system with ``ssh -f remotename xterm'', but if it's a slow
connection ``xterm -e ssh remotename &'' to run the xterm on my
local machine.

Once I get around to upgrading my Macs to Leopard, I may use the
Apple remote desktop feature occassionally when I need to see
what a client is doing on their desktop which should be faster
than trying to talk them through a GUI on the phone.

Bill
--
INTERNET:   bill at celestial.com  Bill Campbell; Celestial Software LLC
URL: http://www.celestial.com/  PO Box 820; 6641 E. Mercer Way
FAX:            (206) 232-9186  Mercer Island, WA 98040-0820; (206) 236-1676

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competition. -rra



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