10 ms·

HopToDesk – Free Remote Desktop Software for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS

59 points by chuchana 4y ago

smallerdemon 4y ago
Ultimately I just gave up on trying these out since they always end up adding conditions that make them impossible to use for free (looking at you especially TeamView). That said, I'm still relying on a a free product from a commercial company, but not a remote desktop one. In the end I have set up a ZeroTier VLAN that I have all my machines on so I can just use built in remote desktop services and SSH.
hmaarrfk 4y ago
I was trying to find this thread again, https://jumpshare.com/ https://jumpshare.com/ The logos look really similar....
GranPC 4y ago
Anyone tried this? How does it compare to RustDesk?
- yodon 4y ago
  This issue suggests HopToDesk is a fork of RustDesk https://gitlab.com/hoptodesk/hoptodesk/-/issues/5 https://gitlab.com/hoptodesk/hoptodesk/-/issues/5
pmontra 4y ago
> Do I need to configure my router or firewall to use HopToDesk? > HopToDesk should simply work and be able to connect to any peer without needing to change any router or firewall settings. Other remote desktop tools such as Windows Remote Desktop and VNC do require setting up port forwarding or opening ports on the router or firewall to allow remote connections to be made, however this is not the case with HopToDesk Does that means that all traffic is routed through some of their servers? Edit: they say it's open source so I went to https://github.com/hoptodesk https://github.com/hoptodesk to look at the code and surprisingly there are only a couple of exe and an AGPL. Edit2: the code is at https://gitlab.com/hoptodesk/hoptodesk https://gitlab.com/hoptodesk/hoptodesk Edit3 and Answer: they do have a server, search for rendezvous in the source code. Self hosting is in the roadmap, see https://gitlab.com/hoptodesk/hoptodesk/-/issues/5 https://gitlab.com/hoptodesk/hoptodesk/-/issues/5
- jeroenhd 4y ago
  This project is a fork of RustDesk so if you're looking for something with selfhosting support, you can try that. RustDesk is also clearer on the way the network works in terms of STUN/TURN.
- rzzzt 4y ago
  STUN/TURN could be at play. The latter will use the relay to move data between participants.
p2hari 4y ago
Could not find the info on the website. Here is the git link https://gitlab.com/hoptodesk/hoptodesk https://gitlab.com/hoptodesk/hoptodesk Please correct if wrong
yodon 4y ago
The idea of a new free cross-platform remote access product sounds great if it can be trusted. That "if" is however a very big if. The website says HopToDesk is Open Source but there is no link to any repos that I can find on the website. GitLab has a recently opened HopToDesk account with just 5 stars and no obvious traceability on first look from my phone to any real identifiable human contributors. HopToDesk says it's an American company based in the US but LinkedIn is not showing me any evidence of the company existing and no employees associated with it. Neither does the preliminary googling I've done. My searches are far from exhaustive and certainly not authoritative but normally when someone builds a company that solves an important problem the people involved are proud of having done so and are easily findable. The first 5 other remote access software companies I looked up on LinkedIn all had obvious search results with easily discoverable employees, founders, and etc. The License file in the GitLab repo is a generic AGPL file with no mention of any corporate entity or individual holding any copyrights. Again, this is a quick look from my phone so not authoritative, but again it's not at all confidence inspiring. Commercial remote access products are quite expensive to subscribe to and typically have real costs to operate in the form of connectivity charges. If customers are not paying for the service, are the customers (and their machines) the real product being sold here? I'm not finding anything in a quick search that gives me any confidence I should trust this app, and I'm seeing lots of things that are not confidence inspiring.
- jonas-w 4y ago
  Just fyi, the "Source"[0] link is at the bottom of the page [0] https://gitlab.com/hoptodesk/hoptodesk https://gitlab.com/hoptodesk/hoptodesk
  - yodon 4y ago
    Thanks - it's also become apparent the repo is a fork of RustDesk, which isn't immediately obvious from either the site contents or the repo history.
    - sirius87 4y ago
      So what happens in cases like these? Looks like RustDesk doesn't have a Copyright notice or copyright info in the license or source code. This codebase comes along and has no attribution information to make it obvious that it is indeed a fork of RustDesk. Is the copyright implicit, and is HopToDesk in legal violation for not making it apparent?
jcpham2 4y ago
Free today, pay tomorrow
- smallerdemon 4y ago
  Another TeamView, LogMeIn former user eh? :)
  - jcpham2 4y ago
    I’ve been burned by every free remote access software ever released lol
2Gkashmiri 4y ago
So wants the purpose of a holding company floating a fork of rustdesk that is supposed to be free for commercial and home use? What's the money angle Here? I am an ardent supporter of rustdesk because it allignes with my belief system and the development is rocket fast. You submit a bug request and it will be fixed very quickly. They have a self hosting server so its not like there are problems with "trusting" the server. You can roll your own. Compared to anydesk/team viewer/no machine/zoho assist whatever, this is the only open source software that actually competes with proprietary software and is feature complete to a good bit. Again, as a fork of rustdesk, what exactly are they bringing on the table?
3ln00b 4y ago
There's rustdesk for those looking for an opensource alternative https://github.com/rustdesk/rustdesk https://github.com/rustdesk/rustdesk
- chuchana 4y ago
  Thanks! I thought HopToDesk might be worth a look as an alternative to TeamViewer, but RustDesk seems more interesting. It probably doesn't have to, but I'd expect a fork to mention its origin and explain at least the advantages it's supposed to have.
- jeroenhd 4y ago
  The source code for this fork seems to be available: https://gitlab.com/hoptodesk/hoptodesk https://gitlab.com/hoptodesk/hoptodesk Going by the interactions listed in that issue, I'm not so sure how reliable this fork is, though.
- ndsipa_pomu 4y ago
  I tried running that in docker earlier today, but didn't read through the documentation and thus didn't figure out how to get to a web UI for it. Had a brief look around and saw that it doesn't work with Wayland, so will try something else first. I'd like something similar to Guacamole (which seems to have disconnection issues with windows RDP connections) and will have a look at HopToDesk along with https://oss.rport.io/ https://oss.rport.io/ and https://meshcentral.com/info/ https://meshcentral.com/info/
DoctorOW 4y ago
I remember hearing about Blender having a problem with people downloading the source, rebranding it, and selling access to their "new" program without mention of the full featured free software. This "fork" of RustDesk currently seems insufficiently different in terms of business model made even more sinister since instead of charging directly it insists on making you route desktop control through their servers.
- nigerianbrince 4y ago
  That's precisely what it is.
- intelVISA 4y ago
  Quite grim really, shameful conduct to not only do that but come here and try to display the carcass with ...pride?
xnx 4y ago
The free Chrome Remote Desktop has been a lifesaver for me dozens of times.
hoptodesk 4y ago
CharlesW 4y ago
Is there anything interesting about this compared to NoMachine, which was recommended by HN'ers in another recent thread that discussed remote access solutions?
- hdjeoslsjdjrhe 4y ago
  Wow nomachine x... I haven't used that in almost 20years... It was good back then when you needed to compress your screen through a 128kbps uplink....
- yardshop 4y ago
  Could you tell me what other thread that is? I did a search and didn't come up with anything except very old threads, and recent posts with no comments.
  - CharlesW 4y ago
    Sure… 6 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33856620 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33856620 16 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33730299 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33730299 22 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33656637 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33656637
13415 4y ago
How does this compare to X2Go?
yardshop 4y ago
My company's LogMeIn subscription just recently got cancelled and we will not be resubscribing due to continual billing run-arounds with them. I found DWService as an alternative (https://www.dwservice.net/en/home.html https://www.dwservice.net/en/home.html) and have given it a brief try but was surprised not to find any mentions of it on HN. It seems to have an open source client, but the back end is not open source. Does anyone know this service and have any thoughts about it? I'm giving RustDesk a try now instead of this based on people's comments here.
- kasajian 4y ago
  I've been using splashtop and jumpdesk
  - voidee 4y ago
    Splashtop here too. I’ve been using it for ~7 years and have no complaints. It does everything I need at a fair price. I’ve used it on Windows, macOS and Ubuntu.

59 points by chuchana 4y ago

Ultimately I just gave up on trying these out since they always end up adding conditions that make them impossible to use for free (looking at you especially TeamView). That said, I'm still relying on a a free product from a commercial company, but not a remote desktop one. In the end I have set up a ZeroTier VLAN that I have all my machines on so I can just use built in remote desktop services and SSH.

hmaarrfk 4y ago

I was trying to find this thread again, https://jumpshare.com/ https://jumpshare.com/ The logos look really similar....

GranPC 4y ago

Anyone tried this? How does it compare to RustDesk?

yodon 4y ago
This issue suggests HopToDesk is a fork of RustDesk https://gitlab.com/hoptodesk/hoptodesk/-/issues/5 https://gitlab.com/hoptodesk/hoptodesk/-/issues/5

pmontra 4y ago

> Do I need to configure my router or firewall to use HopToDesk? > HopToDesk should simply work and be able to connect to any peer without needing to change any router or firewall settings. Other remote desktop tools such as Windows Remote Desktop and VNC do require setting up port forwarding or opening ports on the router or firewall to allow remote connections to be made, however this is not the case with HopToDesk Does that means that all traffic is routed through some of their servers? Edit: they say it's open source so I went to https://github.com/hoptodesk https://github.com/hoptodesk to look at the code and surprisingly there are only a couple of exe and an AGPL. Edit2: the code is at https://gitlab.com/hoptodesk/hoptodesk https://gitlab.com/hoptodesk/hoptodesk Edit3 and Answer: they do have a server, search for rendezvous in the source code. Self hosting is in the roadmap, see https://gitlab.com/hoptodesk/hoptodesk/-/issues/5 https://gitlab.com/hoptodesk/hoptodesk/-/issues/5

jeroenhd 4y ago
This project is a fork of RustDesk so if you're looking for something with selfhosting support, you can try that. RustDesk is also clearer on the way the network works in terms of STUN/TURN.
rzzzt 4y ago
STUN/TURN could be at play. The latter will use the relay to move data between participants.

p2hari 4y ago

Could not find the info on the website. Here is the git link https://gitlab.com/hoptodesk/hoptodesk https://gitlab.com/hoptodesk/hoptodesk Please correct if wrong

yodon 4y ago

The idea of a new free cross-platform remote access product sounds great if it can be trusted. That "if" is however a very big if. The website says HopToDesk is Open Source but there is no link to any repos that I can find on the website. GitLab has a recently opened HopToDesk account with just 5 stars and no obvious traceability on first look from my phone to any real identifiable human contributors. HopToDesk says it's an American company based in the US but LinkedIn is not showing me any evidence of the company existing and no employees associated with it. Neither does the preliminary googling I've done. My searches are far from exhaustive and certainly not authoritative but normally when someone builds a company that solves an important problem the people involved are proud of having done so and are easily findable. The first 5 other remote access software companies I looked up on LinkedIn all had obvious search results with easily discoverable employees, founders, and etc. The License file in the GitLab repo is a generic AGPL file with no mention of any corporate entity or individual holding any copyrights. Again, this is a quick look from my phone so not authoritative, but again it's not at all confidence inspiring. Commercial remote access products are quite expensive to subscribe to and typically have real costs to operate in the form of connectivity charges. If customers are not paying for the service, are the customers (and their machines) the real product being sold here? I'm not finding anything in a quick search that gives me any confidence I should trust this app, and I'm seeing lots of things that are not confidence inspiring.

jonas-w 4y ago
Just fyi, the "Source"[0] link is at the bottom of the page [0] https://gitlab.com/hoptodesk/hoptodesk https://gitlab.com/hoptodesk/hoptodesk
- yodon 4y ago
  Thanks - it's also become apparent the repo is a fork of RustDesk, which isn't immediately obvious from either the site contents or the repo history.
  - sirius87 4y ago
    So what happens in cases like these? Looks like RustDesk doesn't have a Copyright notice or copyright info in the license or source code. This codebase comes along and has no attribution information to make it obvious that it is indeed a fork of RustDesk. Is the copyright implicit, and is HopToDesk in legal violation for not making it apparent?

jcpham2 4y ago

Free today, pay tomorrow

smallerdemon 4y ago
Another TeamView, LogMeIn former user eh? :)
- jcpham2 4y ago
  I’ve been burned by every free remote access software ever released lol

2Gkashmiri 4y ago

So wants the purpose of a holding company floating a fork of rustdesk that is supposed to be free for commercial and home use? What's the money angle Here? I am an ardent supporter of rustdesk because it allignes with my belief system and the development is rocket fast. You submit a bug request and it will be fixed very quickly. They have a self hosting server so its not like there are problems with "trusting" the server. You can roll your own. Compared to anydesk/team viewer/no machine/zoho assist whatever, this is the only open source software that actually competes with proprietary software and is feature complete to a good bit. Again, as a fork of rustdesk, what exactly are they bringing on the table?

3ln00b 4y ago

There's rustdesk for those looking for an opensource alternative https://github.com/rustdesk/rustdesk https://github.com/rustdesk/rustdesk

chuchana 4y ago
Thanks! I thought HopToDesk might be worth a look as an alternative to TeamViewer, but RustDesk seems more interesting. It probably doesn't have to, but I'd expect a fork to mention its origin and explain at least the advantages it's supposed to have.
jeroenhd 4y ago
The source code for this fork seems to be available: https://gitlab.com/hoptodesk/hoptodesk https://gitlab.com/hoptodesk/hoptodesk Going by the interactions listed in that issue, I'm not so sure how reliable this fork is, though.
ndsipa_pomu 4y ago
I tried running that in docker earlier today, but didn't read through the documentation and thus didn't figure out how to get to a web UI for it. Had a brief look around and saw that it doesn't work with Wayland, so will try something else first. I'd like something similar to Guacamole (which seems to have disconnection issues with windows RDP connections) and will have a look at HopToDesk along with https://oss.rport.io/ https://oss.rport.io/ and https://meshcentral.com/info/ https://meshcentral.com/info/

DoctorOW 4y ago

I remember hearing about Blender having a problem with people downloading the source, rebranding it, and selling access to their "new" program without mention of the full featured free software. This "fork" of RustDesk currently seems insufficiently different in terms of business model made even more sinister since instead of charging directly it insists on making you route desktop control through their servers.

nigerianbrince 4y ago
That's precisely what it is.
intelVISA 4y ago
Quite grim really, shameful conduct to not only do that but come here and try to display the carcass with ...pride?

xnx 4y ago

The free Chrome Remote Desktop has been a lifesaver for me dozens of times.

hoptodesk 4y ago

CharlesW 4y ago

Is there anything interesting about this compared to NoMachine, which was recommended by HN'ers in another recent thread that discussed remote access solutions?

hdjeoslsjdjrhe 4y ago
Wow nomachine x... I haven't used that in almost 20years... It was good back then when you needed to compress your screen through a 128kbps uplink....
yardshop 4y ago
Could you tell me what other thread that is? I did a search and didn't come up with anything except very old threads, and recent posts with no comments.
- CharlesW 4y ago
  Sure… 6 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33856620 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33856620 16 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33730299 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33730299 22 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33656637 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33656637

13415 4y ago

How does this compare to X2Go?

yardshop 4y ago

My company's LogMeIn subscription just recently got cancelled and we will not be resubscribing due to continual billing run-arounds with them. I found DWService as an alternative (https://www.dwservice.net/en/home.html https://www.dwservice.net/en/home.html) and have given it a brief try but was surprised not to find any mentions of it on HN. It seems to have an open source client, but the back end is not open source. Does anyone know this service and have any thoughts about it? I'm giving RustDesk a try now instead of this based on people's comments here.

kasajian 4y ago
I've been using splashtop and jumpdesk
- voidee 4y ago
  Splashtop here too. I’ve been using it for ~7 years and have no complaints. It does everything I need at a fair price. I’ve used it on Windows, macOS and Ubuntu.