I am also currently working on a web-based remote desktop app as a side project. I am using socket.io (python port) and pngs, using transparency to only update

I am also currently working on a web-based remote desktop app as a side project. I am using socket.io (python port) and pngs, using transparency to only update the part of the image that changed between frames. However, I also thought about using long-loading animated gifs, because: 1. Run-length encoding seems to be ideal for screenshots. 2. You can use transparency to only update pixels that changed between frames without need for an alpha layer. 3. Palette-based does not seem to be a big issue for screenshots, which typically have few colors. 4. You use an additional frames to update colors that are off [1]. That way you get the best of both worlds: low latency and high quality images. Do you have any issues using gifs? Memory usage, closing connections, etc...? [1] http://phil.ipal.org/tc.html# http://phil.ipal.org/tc.html#