Ask HN: Why is there no performant remote desktop for Mac/Linux?

Remote Desktop Remote PC Access Remote Control

Xpra Landing Page
1

Xpra

multi-platform screen and application forwarding system
Pricing:
- Open Source
I haven't seen anybody mention xpra ( https://xpra.org/ ) yet, but I used to use it daily a while back when I still used linux on my laptop. "Screen for X" really jives with how I wanted to use it (beefy server, ultrabook laptop, fast local network). X2Go is also pretty good IIRC. I used NoMachine at work a few jobs ago, but I didn't like how it required a weird dedicated unix user for itself. I don't know why they needed that (maybe so that they could multiplex multiple users over a single port or something like that?), but I never understood why it didn't just run as my own user. It was fast, I'll give it that.

#Remote Desktop #Remote PC Access #Remote Control 27 social mentions
Chrome Remote Desktop Landing Page

2

Chrome Remote Desktop

The easy way to remotely connect with your home or work computer, or share your screen with others.

I've been using https://remotedesktop.google.com/ for quite some time now with both Linux and MacOS because it provides the best latencies. Anyone knows what protocols it's using? And is this feature set part of the open source chromium distribution as well?

#Remote Desktop #Remote PC Access #Remote Control 94 social mentions
TigerVNC Landing Page
3

TigerVNC

TigerVNC is an advanced VNC implementation. It is based on the fourth generation of VNC.
Pricing:
- Open Source
#Remote Desktop #Remote PC Access #Remote Control 11 social mentions
Guacamole Landing Page

4

Guacamole

Access your computers from anywhere. Because the Guacamole client is an HTML5 web application, use of your computers is not tied to any one device or location. As long as you have access to a web browser, you have access to your machines.

In the past, I did some optimizations on top of guac (https://guacamole.apache.org/) and got pretty nice results. I used that 'protocol' to build this: https://allmydesktops.com/.

#Remote Desktop #Remote PC Access #Remote Control 137 social mentions
Rustdesk Landing Page
5

Rustdesk

Discover RustDesk, The best open source remote desktop software. It is an alternative of TeamViewer and AnyDesk. You have full control of your data, no concern of security.
Pricing:
- Open Source
I'm surprised that nobody mentioned RustDesk. https://rustdesk.com/.

#Remote Desktop #Remote PC Control #Remote PC Access 91 social mentions
Getscreen.me Landing Page
6

Getscreen.me

Remote access from a browser. Free trial is available. Simple and easy to use screen sharing software.
Pricing:
- Freemium
- Free Trial
If you don't mind a hosted service that doesn't proxy the stream, then https://getscreen.me/ is great, you can even watch a movie over the wire performantly. It uses a custom native handshake client and WebRTC for the encryption, in other words, same as Chrome Desktop but simpler to use.

#Remote Desktop #Screen Sharing #Remote PC Access 27 social mentions
Drovio Landing Page

7

Drovio

Remote pair programming and team collaboration tool

You might want to try https://drovio.com/ - it's not free, but I searched a few years ago for the best screen sharing software and so far never found one that beats it. Key features: 1. Extremely fast and smooth screen sharing. I've used RDP, I've used VNC, I've used Chrome, I've used Apple's screen sharing. None beat it. 2. Multiple mouse cursors! You can see where your co-workers mouse is, and they can click and interact with your desktop just like you do (if allowed of course). So far this has been the best way to do interactive code review sessions and even some pair programming. 3. Smooth animations. I originally started using it (back when it was called USE Together) because I wanted to do a presentation remotely that would show smooth 60fps animations from an app I was working on. It was the only one that could do it. I never used it on Linux however.

#Productivity #Developer Tools #Tech 2 social mentions