5 ms·

I have been working on one for the past two/three months to scratch this itch. I will probably release it soon (and hopefully shill it on HN!). In the meantime,

I have been working on one for the past two/three months to scratch this itch. I will probably release it soon (and hopefully shill it on HN!). In the meantime, NoMachine is a very good remote desktop software (macOS and Linux), and possibly Sunshine (GameStream host), but basically I'm not sure why a more popular one exists. In essence, a good remote desktop software will use video encoding/decoding (h264/265 for both ways being very fast) to encode captured frames of the desktop, and a good transport protocol over the network with good tuning parameters to achieve low latency (which is what mine does). I believe this is what NoMachine and Parsec do and why they are so good (along with NICE DCV). From my work I've found that video processing libraries/techniques are extremely poorly documented (think the libav* family of libraries), which makes it a very difficult segment to conquer because of what I perceive as honestly massive gatekeeping (or by Hanlon's razor perhaps laziness). There's nothing impossible about making a remote desktop software (I can say this since I'm doing it right now) but I can say it's harder than it has to be.

GiorgioG 4y ago
NoMachine is ok...if you haven't spent much time in RDP. Windows RDP is so far ahead of anything else out there it puts them all to shame. I use RDP for work all day long and I couldn't find a workable solution that would have a similar experience on Mac/Linux. And these machines are all on the local network!
- wombat-man 4y ago
  This was the case 10 years ago too iirc. Windows RDP is excellent. Wish Linux RDP worked as well.
- kaladin-jasnah 4y ago
  I've found, over NoMachine and even RDP, that Parsec is hands down the best solution that I've encountered because of how low-latency it is. It might not support all the input methods/etc. that RDP does (IIUC RDP has good touchscreen support), but Parsec is faster than everything else.
  - debdut 4y ago
    thanks for this input! Parsec looks promising
  - fsh 4y ago
    This matches my experience. With a Gigabit Ethernet connection, I find it very difficult to distinguish a desktop streamed via Parsec from a local one. RDP is noticeably laggy in comparison. I would even say that Parsec over a good internet connection (a few 10 MBit, ~10 ms ping) feels more responsive than RDP over LAN. What I don't like is that Parsec relies on third-party servers for the session initiation, and that streaming Linux desktops is currently not supported. Maybe the open source implementations of Nvidia's GameStream (Moonlight and Sunshine) could be an alternative.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- boondaburrah 4y ago
  I've literally never found anything better than the NX-based NoMachine (I think version 3 was the last one to support it). I'll never understand why they downgraded themselves to yet another desktop video stream. If you can find a copy of the older version or one of the open source replacements (freenx? x2go?) it's worth it. I was able to use my home computer lag-free at my highschool when it was at home sitting behind a shitty ADSL connection. Later I used it at college with my computer at the dorm with a 100k/sec upload cap (enforced to discourage student file sharing). It pulled some dirty tricks with X forwarding, caching pixmaps, and jpegging the hell out of the individual elements, but it really felt like the computer I was using was right there.
- EarthMephit 4y ago
  Interestingly the RDP client on the mac app store is really good. Its better than the Windows client because it just works as another desktop in the Mac OS, with no bar at the top, and you can jump in to and out of various remote session quickly just by switching desktops with Cmd+left or right arrows. Its a really simple, nice to use implementation.
  - lostmsu 4y ago
    I requested that feature for Windows RDP client over 2 years ago to no avail. Sort of surprising they made it work like this on Mac, but not on Windows.
- iforgotpassword 4y ago
  For me it's the opposite when it comes to lan. Vnc is buttery smooth with no perceivable delay, while RDP still seems to limit to some low-ish fps. For low bandwidth/high latency links, RDP easily wins.
- blablabla123 4y ago
  How is Parsec actually in comparison? Never tried RDP but Parsec just blew my mind
ktpsns 4y ago
I found x2go being a nice and performing FOSS replacement fo NX NoMachine.
- richardfey 4y ago
  This. x2go has served me well and can be tuned to be even more performant with some X11 settings changes.
xtanx 4y ago
> In essence, a good remote desktop software will use video encoding/decoding (h264/265 for both ways being very fast) to encode captured frames of the desktop, and a good transport protocol over the network with good tuning parameters to achieve low latency (which is what mine does). I believe this is what NoMachine and Parsec do and why they are so good (along with NICE DCV) They do, but the paid version of NoMachine has?/had? a mode called X11 vector graphics explained better by NXDev here [0]. I've used it from 2016 until 2021 and for classic applications (ie apps not requiring a GPU) is incredibly fast. To the point that I used to forget i was working remotely. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=NXdev https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=NXdev
Maursault 4y ago
> NoMachine is a very good remote desktop software Glad someone mentioned it. I wondered if NX was still a thing... fast secure (over ssh) NoMachine blows past RDP every day of the week and twice on Sundays.

GiorgioG 4y ago

NoMachine is ok...if you haven't spent much time in RDP. Windows RDP is so far ahead of anything else out there it puts them all to shame. I use RDP for work all day long and I couldn't find a workable solution that would have a similar experience on Mac/Linux. And these machines are all on the local network!

wombat-man 4y ago
This was the case 10 years ago too iirc. Windows RDP is excellent. Wish Linux RDP worked as well.
kaladin-jasnah 4y ago
I've found, over NoMachine and even RDP, that Parsec is hands down the best solution that I've encountered because of how low-latency it is. It might not support all the input methods/etc. that RDP does (IIUC RDP has good touchscreen support), but Parsec is faster than everything else.
- debdut 4y ago
  thanks for this input! Parsec looks promising
- fsh 4y ago
  This matches my experience. With a Gigabit Ethernet connection, I find it very difficult to distinguish a desktop streamed via Parsec from a local one. RDP is noticeably laggy in comparison. I would even say that Parsec over a good internet connection (a few 10 MBit, ~10 ms ping) feels more responsive than RDP over LAN. What I don't like is that Parsec relies on third-party servers for the session initiation, and that streaming Linux desktops is currently not supported. Maybe the open source implementations of Nvidia's GameStream (Moonlight and Sunshine) could be an alternative.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
boondaburrah 4y ago
I've literally never found anything better than the NX-based NoMachine (I think version 3 was the last one to support it). I'll never understand why they downgraded themselves to yet another desktop video stream. If you can find a copy of the older version or one of the open source replacements (freenx? x2go?) it's worth it. I was able to use my home computer lag-free at my highschool when it was at home sitting behind a shitty ADSL connection. Later I used it at college with my computer at the dorm with a 100k/sec upload cap (enforced to discourage student file sharing). It pulled some dirty tricks with X forwarding, caching pixmaps, and jpegging the hell out of the individual elements, but it really felt like the computer I was using was right there.
EarthMephit 4y ago
Interestingly the RDP client on the mac app store is really good. Its better than the Windows client because it just works as another desktop in the Mac OS, with no bar at the top, and you can jump in to and out of various remote session quickly just by switching desktops with Cmd+left or right arrows. Its a really simple, nice to use implementation.
- lostmsu 4y ago
  I requested that feature for Windows RDP client over 2 years ago to no avail. Sort of surprising they made it work like this on Mac, but not on Windows.
iforgotpassword 4y ago
For me it's the opposite when it comes to lan. Vnc is buttery smooth with no perceivable delay, while RDP still seems to limit to some low-ish fps. For low bandwidth/high latency links, RDP easily wins.
blablabla123 4y ago
How is Parsec actually in comparison? Never tried RDP but Parsec just blew my mind

ktpsns 4y ago

I found x2go being a nice and performing FOSS replacement fo NX NoMachine.

richardfey 4y ago
This. x2go has served me well and can be tuned to be even more performant with some X11 settings changes.

xtanx 4y ago

> In essence, a good remote desktop software will use video encoding/decoding (h264/265 for both ways being very fast) to encode captured frames of the desktop, and a good transport protocol over the network with good tuning parameters to achieve low latency (which is what mine does). I believe this is what NoMachine and Parsec do and why they are so good (along with NICE DCV) They do, but the paid version of NoMachine has?/had? a mode called X11 vector graphics explained better by NXDev here [0]. I've used it from 2016 until 2021 and for classic applications (ie apps not requiring a GPU) is incredibly fast. To the point that I used to forget i was working remotely. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=NXdev https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=NXdev

Maursault 4y ago

> NoMachine is a very good remote desktop software Glad someone mentioned it. I wondered if NX was still a thing... fast secure (over ssh) NoMachine blows past RDP every day of the week and twice on Sundays.