Anyone who knows me, knows I am very keen on Network / Server Based Computing merchant account. As a part of my daytime lila I run a small Windows Terminal Server ‘farm’ that supports 300 remote desktop sessions across 40 branches in a 2500km radius. It’s not completely without it’s faults but it’s pretty damn good. The more I used Linux, the more I wanted a similar solution to RDP. Anyone who ever advocated VNC as a replacement for RDP really just, well they didn’t quite have a clue web design. Winvnc, tightvnc etc, etc.. none of them come close in regards to screen rendering quality vs speed. The desktop experience isn’t the same. I then realised X can be used for full desktop via XDM and there was even a Win32 client… but had you ever tried to use it over a WAN? ha.. I’ve been a packet sniffer since way back. My first attempt at ever networking 2 computers together caused me days of grief and hair pulling and led me to realise there was such a thing as a Packet Sniffer which could tell you what was going back and forth on the wire – who was saying what wireless internet. Anyway, along comes the NX protocol / software client and server by Nomachine. I mean, this is some cool shit that kicks some serious butt on RDP. In essence it is the X server protocol that is compressed and proxied between the server and the client. On full 16bit colour, full screen across a 512/512 ADSL link it is VERY MUCH like sitting at your own desktop voip. Try scrolling on a website on the same link with RDP and you will be in for sit and wait.. hit a page with some flash animations on RDP and you’re gonna suffer a little. Nomachine’s NX flies through it all almost seamlessly.