Easy VNC/Remote desktop connections to Linux servers

NX server:-

One common misconception regarding Linux is that there is no simple way of using a remote desktop - (RDP). Linux has always had the capabilities of remote desktop functionality since it has had X support, however compared to RDP on Windows, it was always slow. VNC is an option however again it has speed drawbacks.

There are now several ways of remotely connecting to a Linux server's desktop using NX technology (See the list at the bottom of the article) the speed of which outperforms terminal services / VNC – it is even acceptable on a dial-up modem, for those who are not yet on broadband.

Some of these apps also have the ability of free unlimited simultaneous users, compared to the 2 simultaneous users allowed on a standard version of Windows RDP.

Connecting remotely to a Linux server will allow you to access a wealth of useful, mainly free, GUI tools in Linux, you can install the Ubuntu-desktop environment, this would give you access to the OpenOfffice suite, you can use OpenOffice base with MySQL to have an Access style GUI asn an example. Some people also find it far easier to work in a desktop environment to perform server admin tasks then using the traditional and very tricky command line method (telnet/SSH).

There are various other useful network/server admin GUI tools available and countless tools of developers e.g., Eclipse:-

http://www.eclipse.org/screenshots/ A powerful GUI tool that has IDE's for programming in C++, PHP, JAVA,

You will have to make sure that you install a desktop environment on your server to connect to it– Gnome/KDE are the most common this can be done using your distributions package manager.

There are 3 main versions of the NX technology:

1) Nomachine Nxserver

http://www.nomachine.com/

This is the original version (the company created the technology)

Advantages:

- Very simple to setup and very stable

Disadvantages:

- Free version has only 2 users allowed - Unlimited users requires a license.



2) FreeNx

http://freenx.berlios.de/

A 100% free opensource implementation of NX Server

Advantages:

- There are no license changes

- Can have unlimited users free of charge

Disadvantages:

- setup/config is less user friendly than Nomachine Nxserver



3)Neatx (google.com)



The 'new kid on the block' has been created by google – see blog post:-

http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2009/07/releasing-neatx-open-source-nx-servier.html

Advantages:

- Designed to be more user friendly and faster than the original

- Supported by the Google.com corporation.

Disadvantages:

- Very early project (released 7th July 2009), missing several features presently



If you would like support to install any of these technologies on your dedicated server (Virtual dedicated servers are not appropriate) please contact sales@cwcs.co.uk for a quote. We would advise against Neatx due to the very early stage of the project.