RDEsktop/VNC questions

[Bart Silverstrim]

On Nov 10, 2004, at 6:14 PM, Louis LeBlanc wrote:

> Quick question about interconnectivity.
>
> You OSX users may be familiar with a very slick little utility called
> RDC (Remote Desktop Connection).  Some of you other *BSDers may also be
> familiar with one called VNC (Visual Network Connection ?) or RDP (?).
> The purpose of said utilities is to provide a sort of graphical shell
> similar to an X session from a remote machine in a window.
>
> There are several rdesktop and vnc clients in the ports, so rather than
> go through the flurry of install-tryout-uninstall/repeat, I figured I'd
> go to the place to ask questions.  Here.
>
> So, who's using these clients, and how effective have you been finding
> them?  Any gotchas?  How cool is it?  Do they just plain suck?  And 
> more
> to the point, which one(s) should I start with on the short list?


I've used them both (RDP protocol client and various VNC clients on 
different platforms), and they're for two different things.

RDP (the RDC client) is for connecting to Windows Terminal Services; 
you get a desktop login of your own in your own session.  VNC takes 
remote control of a desktop running the server application.  RDP is a 
hack to turn Windows into a "multi user" system, while VNC is 
single-user implementation.

Which one should you start with?  Depends on the platform and what 
you're trying to do.  If you have a Windows Terminal Server, an RDP 
client is the way to go.  If you don't...VNC is the way to go :-)