Remote Computing: Every Workstation is a Server

Up for debate: the best software to use to create a virtual terminal of a remote Windows machine.

The contenders: Microsoft's own Remote Desktop against the free rewrite of VNC called TightVNC.

Basically, Remote Desktop provides much of the same functionality of the old VNC: that which you would see on your monitor were you sitting in front of it you now see inside a window on your local system. TightVNC provides further functionality, including an HTTP-based server, a Java-based client, and file transfer capability.

Remote Desktop is primarily a Windows application, but an official OS X port is available for free download. Remote Desktop also works with your Windows authentication methods, which means no extra passwords to remember.

Downsides for each: nothing in the Remote Desktop online documentation specifically suggests that Terminal Services service is required. (It goes without saying? I sincerely doubt that Microsoft Corporation would leave such a critical step out of the how-to. Neither software solution purports to encrypt its data, which means neither does. The TightVNC client will also crash from time to time for no good reason.

The upside of the encryption thing: Microsoft's website suggests a VPN solution, which, though it will work, sounds complicated and probably involves mailing another check to Redmond. Both softwares send their data over a single port: RDP uses 3389/tcp and VNC uses 5900/tcp. Both softwares may then, at least in theory, be tunneled over SSH providing secure communications across an unsafe network.

Until recently, when people would suggest to me that a certain situation required remote access to a computer, I'd say "VNC." And if a computer consultant was involved in the conversation, he would respond by asking "Why not use Terminal Services?" To which I would answer with another question: "Why not VNC?" It went on like this until I enumerated to them that TightVNC was free, could be encrypted, and permitted file transfers. That usually shut them up.

Of course, this doesn't mean that Remote Desktop is bad. In fact, I have just today started playing around with it to see if it had any features worth using. So far, no, there's nothing. But that doesn't mean it doesn't have any.

Summary judgment: I'm keeping VNC and will dabble with Remote Desktop + SSH until I find a good reason to switch or a better reason to destroy all that Remote Desktop is, does, and stands for.