4 ms·

What is rustdesk and how is it distinct from vnc? Edit: i appreciate the explanations; thank you.

vablings 2mo ago
Well first there was TeamViewer which was VNC with more bells and whistles then it became enshittified. Then anydesk came along and ate up teamviewer then that became enshittified, Now we have rustdesk which seems to hopefully be a bit more immune to being enshittified. If you already use VNC this is not something for you
- topspin 2mo ago
  I've noticed that RealVNC has hidden their formerly free VNC desktop client, now called RealVNC Classic Viewer, behind an enterprise subscription login, and replaced it with a different cloud first thing, RealVNC Connect Viewer, that requires a login to at least obtain, and is anemic in terms of features. Not that RealVNC is VNC. However, enshittification has clearly taken another scalp.
- mschild 2mo ago
  RustDesk is also open source including the server so you can fully self-host.
  - pyramidless_cle 2mo ago
    That's not really true for quite some time now. Both client and the free server depend on a separate submodule that has no LICENSE file whatsoever. Because of that RustDesk is stuck in a limbo somewhere between open source, source-available and closed source. Also, the whole management of the project seems questionable. Also for some features a dll blob which is not open source is required with no source disclosed at all.
    - 9cb14c1ec0 2mo ago
      That's what BetterDesk is for: https://github.com/UNITRONIX/BetterDesk https://github.com/UNITRONIX/BetterDesk
      - d3Xt3r 2mo ago
        I like that their server is just a single Go binary, but then they go and ruin that with a Node.js web UI and.. PostgreSQL?! Seems like complete overkill. I wonder what gripping limitations they faced with SQLite that they decided it needed PostgreSQL.
        haswell 2mo ago
        SQLite is still the default backend. Postgres is optional.
        opello 2mo ago
        It looks like PostgreSQL is optional and SQLite is the default. https://github.com/UNITRONIX/BetterDesk#prerequisites https://github.com/UNITRONIX/BetterDesk#prerequisites
      - pyramidless_cle 2mo ago
        Seems like that is just a server implementation that requires you to use stock RustDesk clients. So you can't really have a fully opensource RustDesk-like system without requiring a substantial chunk of unlicensed source code as well as a closed source dll blob(s). I just glanced over the repo, deployment and comments around it and it seems like unconstrained AI slop or at least the project seems to be led by a person which can't use AI effectively for the purpose of software engineering.
rcxdude 2mo ago
VNC is one way of doing remote GUI access (well, more a family of different protocols and products with different capabilities and tradeoffs). RustDesk is just another product that does the same thing but doesn't have a specific connection to VNC as a protocol so e.g. doesn't have to handle legacy authentication modes and stream formats. In my experience most remote access solutions beat VNC for performance, for example.
pizza234 2mo ago
VNC and RustDesk are both remote desktop solutions, however, Rustdesk is considerably more performant than the VNC family, because the latter primarily sends framebuffer updates, while the former can use modern video codecs and temporal compression to encode screen changes much more efficiently.
- shock 2mo ago
  > Rustdesk is considerably more performant than the VNC family It consumes, on the client, 800%-1200% CPU AND 8%-10% GPU decode on my NVIDIA card. I opened a bug and they transformed it into a discussion, without any response.
  - embedding-shape 2mo ago
    > they transformed it into a discussion, without any response How dare they.
  - LoganDark 2mo ago
    Performant does not mean it uses less resources, it means it makes better use of the resources
    - anakaine 2mo ago
      Better is subjective. What is the bottleneck or resource allocation you're trying to overcome? Going on what the poster above says about CPU and memory - if the network speed or bandwidth allocation is the bottleneck, then trading CPU and memory utilisation increases for lower bandwidth is likely acceptable. If, however, the device is low end and tying up memory and CPU with compression would lead to sluggish or impaired task performance but the network has adequate overhead for lower levels of compression or higher levels of data transfer then higher network utilisation would be preferable. Different tools, different use case scenarios.
    - shock 2mo ago
      Please detail in what ways rustdesk "makes better use of the resources", so as to conclude that it is more performant. I'm curious to understand your perspective, since mine is very different.

Well first there was TeamViewer which was VNC with more bells and whistles then it became enshittified. Then anydesk came along and ate up teamviewer then that became enshittified, Now we have rustdesk which seems to hopefully be a bit more immune to being enshittified. If you already use VNC this is not something for you

topspin 2mo ago
I've noticed that RealVNC has hidden their formerly free VNC desktop client, now called RealVNC Classic Viewer, behind an enterprise subscription login, and replaced it with a different cloud first thing, RealVNC Connect Viewer, that requires a login to at least obtain, and is anemic in terms of features. Not that RealVNC is VNC. However, enshittification has clearly taken another scalp.
mschild 2mo ago
RustDesk is also open source including the server so you can fully self-host.
- pyramidless_cle 2mo ago
  That's not really true for quite some time now. Both client and the free server depend on a separate submodule that has no LICENSE file whatsoever. Because of that RustDesk is stuck in a limbo somewhere between open source, source-available and closed source. Also, the whole management of the project seems questionable. Also for some features a dll blob which is not open source is required with no source disclosed at all.
  - 9cb14c1ec0 2mo ago
    That's what BetterDesk is for: https://github.com/UNITRONIX/BetterDesk https://github.com/UNITRONIX/BetterDesk
    - d3Xt3r 2mo ago
      I like that their server is just a single Go binary, but then they go and ruin that with a Node.js web UI and.. PostgreSQL?! Seems like complete overkill. I wonder what gripping limitations they faced with SQLite that they decided it needed PostgreSQL.
      - haswell 2mo ago
        SQLite is still the default backend. Postgres is optional.
      - opello 2mo ago
        It looks like PostgreSQL is optional and SQLite is the default. https://github.com/UNITRONIX/BetterDesk#prerequisites https://github.com/UNITRONIX/BetterDesk#prerequisites
    - pyramidless_cle 2mo ago
      Seems like that is just a server implementation that requires you to use stock RustDesk clients. So you can't really have a fully opensource RustDesk-like system without requiring a substantial chunk of unlicensed source code as well as a closed source dll blob(s). I just glanced over the repo, deployment and comments around it and it seems like unconstrained AI slop or at least the project seems to be led by a person which can't use AI effectively for the purpose of software engineering.

rcxdude 2mo ago

VNC is one way of doing remote GUI access (well, more a family of different protocols and products with different capabilities and tradeoffs). RustDesk is just another product that does the same thing but doesn't have a specific connection to VNC as a protocol so e.g. doesn't have to handle legacy authentication modes and stream formats. In my experience most remote access solutions beat VNC for performance, for example.

pizza234 2mo ago

VNC and RustDesk are both remote desktop solutions, however, Rustdesk is considerably more performant than the VNC family, because the latter primarily sends framebuffer updates, while the former can use modern video codecs and temporal compression to encode screen changes much more efficiently.

shock 2mo ago
> Rustdesk is considerably more performant than the VNC family It consumes, on the client, 800%-1200% CPU AND 8%-10% GPU decode on my NVIDIA card. I opened a bug and they transformed it into a discussion, without any response.
- embedding-shape 2mo ago
  > they transformed it into a discussion, without any response How dare they.
- LoganDark 2mo ago
  Performant does not mean it uses less resources, it means it makes better use of the resources
  - anakaine 2mo ago
    Better is subjective. What is the bottleneck or resource allocation you're trying to overcome? Going on what the poster above says about CPU and memory - if the network speed or bandwidth allocation is the bottleneck, then trading CPU and memory utilisation increases for lower bandwidth is likely acceptable. If, however, the device is low end and tying up memory and CPU with compression would lead to sluggish or impaired task performance but the network has adequate overhead for lower levels of compression or higher levels of data transfer then higher network utilisation would be preferable. Different tools, different use case scenarios.
  - shock 2mo ago
    Please detail in what ways rustdesk "makes better use of the resources", so as to conclude that it is more performant. I'm curious to understand your perspective, since mine is very different.