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Ask HN: Do self hosted virtual desktop software exist? If not. Why not?

4 points by chrisacky ↗ HN
I've always searched and failed to find a solution which would allow me to have my powerhouse desktop run my dev environment, perhaps in one room in my house, then from another room connect to it and control and launch and run devices as if it was native.

Does any such toppings like this exist. It's kind of like steam link but for a multi monitor desktop.

7 comments

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uberman
like MSTSC for windows or XRDP for linux?
phillipseamore
Yes, VNC. Multiple variants available. Remote devices might be available with some of them, otherwise there are other options for that like usbip.
chrisacky
I've used VNC back when I actually needed to manage servers remotely but not for about 12 years. It was always more clunky than RDP.

Is it viable to use vnc within the same home as a way to have slow system connect to the main desktop.

phillipseamore
I do it all the time, have an old (2009) laptop that's basically just a thin client to my main desktop machine via VNC.
wjdp
Has VNC gotten better with latency? I used it quite a few years ago and compared to remote products from MS and Apple it was sluggish.

Commercial remote/thin-client style products at the time were usable as desktop replacements, VNC was only used as a last-resort for small tasks.

xen2xen1
Remote desktop, vnc, NX (no machine). Or buy a super cheap windows server copy and RDP licenses on Ebay and use RemoteApp. Technically, remoteapp works on Windows 10 with hack and is exactly what you are asking for, if I understand you.
cpach
X2Go. VMware Horizon.