To do this, you must first meet the dependencies for Java, VNC, and RDP support, which is easily done: sudo apt-get install tomcat6 libvncserver0 libfreerdp1 Alternatively, you can build Guacamole from the source code.įor a test, you will need Guacamole 0.6.2 on a recent (12.04.1 LTS) Ubuntu system. The Downloads section of the website provides packages for Debian 6.0 (squeeze), Ubuntu 11.10/12.04, and Fedora 15/16/17. Most current browsers today can do this (apart from Internet Explorer 8 and 9), even though the W3C assumes that HTML5 will not be widely supported until 2014 (see the “HTML5-Capable Browsers” box).įortunately, the Guacamole website has prebuilt packages for several distributions. The prerequisite then is just a browser that supports the Canvas element. These are ideal conditions for rendering a desktop and applications in the browser. Guacamole promises near-native performance and offers international keyboard support and an on-screen keyboard, where you can use the mouse to simulate keyboard input.Įlement in HTML5, which uses JavaScript to handle extensive graphical operations, including not only drawing lines, rectangles, arcs, and Bezier curves, but also rendering color gradients, transparencies, and text and – most importantly – scaling graphics in the PNG, JPG, and GIF formats. The desktops accessible via RDP or VNC can run either on the application server itself or on a different computer on the network.
#Nomachine vs rdp performance software#
On the server-side, the Java software runs on an Apache server with a servlet container (Apache Tomcat) and then acts as a proxy that translates graphical output from VNC and RDP into XML and vice versa (Figure 1).įigure 1: The sketch shows a functional diagram of Guacamole and its communication with RDP or VNC servers.
For example, you cannot transmit audio data or connect network drives over RDP. The program is licensed under the AGPLv3 and, in the current version 0.6.2, supports VNC and RDP – although with limited functionality in some cases. The alternative is Guacamole, an HTML5 web application that supports graphical access via remote desktop protocols (RDPs) directly in the browser, without the need for additional plugins. Often you need Java, Flash, or ActiveX – and maybe even a specific version. However, these solutions typically impose specific requirements on the browser and plugins. For some years, “clientless SSL VPNs” have plugged this gap by providing browser-based access to remote applications over a secure HTTPS connection, without needing to install a client. This is all very unfortunate, for example, if you are working on a computer in the hotel lobby or an Internet cafe and cannot install your own applications. If you do not trust the built-in encryption, or if none exists, you will soon see the need for a VPN client to provide encryption and authentication. However, this approach typically involves installing the corresponding software client on the machine from which users want to access the remote application. But, what if you want to serve up your own applications from the enterprise LAN or access your home desktop over the Internet? Terminal server technologies (like VNC and RDP) or VDI solutions (like VMware View or Citrix Xen Desktop) are the obvious choices. Remotely controlling applications in the browser is nothing new – it’s been possible ever since Google Apps.
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