freshmeat.net: Project details for NoMachine NX

NoMachine NX is a fast terminal server system
based on the X11 protocol. In addition, NX also
translates and embeds the MS Windows Terminal
Server and VNC protocols into X/NX. NX is an order
of magnitude faster than VNC or X11 and can run on bandwidth
as narrow as 10 kBit/sec. By embedding RDP and
RFB, it enables users to compress and accelerate
remote Windows and VNC sessions. NX lets you work
fluently even across slow links like modems. The
NX project provides a suite of libraries and X11
proxying agents implementing efficient compression
and optimized transport of X11, SMB, IPP, HTTP, and arbitrary protocols like audio over the
Internet.

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Went to the site and looked around a bit and it sure looks interesting. The works over even slow links like modems is gonna make a lot of new apps available that depend on close machine/desktop interaction that haven’t been possible before now. The times I have had to use pcanywhere over a modem it’s been almost painfully slow. Haven’t tried it over a fast link so no idea but I suspect it takes a lot more pipeline resources than this does.