Remote Desktop Applications
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Remote Desktop Applications allow for a variety of administrative tasks to be conducted on a machine when physical access to the machine is limited, cumbersome or otherwise restricted. While many tasks on Linux machines can easily be accomplished through Secure Shell (SSH), this option does not natively exist in Windows and many programs are not compatible with command line manipulation. As such, a wide variety of both commercial and open source solutions are available to address this need, and additionally to provide this functionality to non-Windows machines.
Windows Applications
- Remote Desktop Protocol - An application native to Windows XP/2003/Vista that allows for remote sessions to be established through the Remote Desktop Connection program to properly configured machines. These sessions operate similarly to the behavior of Windows when logged in locally with a few additional benefits including sharing of resources such as printers, drives and the clipboard.
- Radmin - A commercial remote desktop sharing software developed by Famatech. Connections are 256-bit AES encryption enabled.
Macintosh Applications
In Mac OS X a program called rdesktop has been included that allows for a connection to be made to Windows machines properly configured Windows machines. This client is open source software released under the GNU General Public License. It can be acquired from numerous Linux repositories or from the developer's homepage at the rDesktop Developers Home.
Microsoft has released Remote Desktop Connect (RDC) for Macintosh. The current version (2.0) is a Beta release, but is fairly stable.
Cross Platform Applications
Virtual Network Computing (VNC)- Developed by AT&T, this software available under the GNU General Public License can be used to share the view on a computer. It is Java based so server, as well as clients, are available in multiple platforms.
Popular VNC clients include:
- Chicken of the VNC (Mac OS X)
- TightVNC (Windows, Linux)
