I propose that for the GNOME release of Karmic, Grdc Remote Desktop Client should be installed by default, replacing both the tsclient and vinagre applications.
Availability: grdc 0.6.0-0ubuntu1 available from the universe repository with minimal extra libraries required (libvncserver0 and potentially libssh-2). The 0.6 release is considered stable by upstream. Overview: supports "RDP, VNC, SSH and Avahi network protocols, more stable multi-threading, password encryption" [1] Rationale: grdc provides superior features compared to both tsclient and vinagre combined; performance is equal to tsclient for RDP connections and superior to vinagre for VNC connections; interface is uncluttered (despite offering useful advanced functionality); application supports the two most popular protocols (RDP and VNC) in single interface; upstream development is active; low disk footprint (installing the packages "grdc libssh-2 libvncserver0" requires 1036KB disk space). Argument against inclusion: vinagre should be supported since it is part of the official GNOME desktop set. Counter-argument: vinagre has not seen significant development in quite some time, and has serious performance issues for VNC connections and does not support basic options such as changing bit depth [2]. Brief summary of client features: 1. vinagre (VNC client): - Supports VNC and Avahi protocols - Supported by upstream GNOME project and included in default desktop configuration. - Supports full screen, scaling, view only mode. - Interface allows users to save and open connection "profiles" (called Bookmarks) - Performance is generally considered poor [2]; very slow even over 100Mbit connection, and lack of colour depth option further reduces options to improve performance over low bandwidth connections. 2. tsclient (RDP client) - Potentially supports RDP, VNC, XDMCP, ICA protocols; default configuration in Ubuntu only provides RDP functionality. - Supports custom screen resolution, bit depths, full-screen switch (of which the latter doesn't function). - Supports custom keyboard mapping (which doesn't work correctly for me). - Supports creation of connection profiles, but the interface does not have any way of displaying/choosing previously saved connections. - Interface provides support for "advanced" features such as bitmap caching, but advanced settings do not appear to work correctly, nor are they saved properly when you create a connection profile. - Performance with RDP connection is generally good (which reflects upon rdesktop, as tsclient is only a frontend) 3. grdc (RDP/VNC/Avahi/SSH client) - Supports "RDP, VNC, SSH, Avahi network protocols - Supports custom screen resolution, bit depths; full-screen switch available via pulldown toolbar. - Supports advanced RDP options such as bitmap caching, compression and attaching to Windows 2003 console (which appear to function, unlike tsclient). - Supports VNC options such as remote cursor, view only and disable server input. - Interface allows users to save and open connection profiles. - Interface presents many useful options, but does a good job of isolating basic options from advanced options via tabs in preferences dialog. - Supports SSH tunneling. - Supports grabbing of keyboard events. - Performance with RDP *and* VNC protocol is excellent. References: [1] http://grdc.sourceforge.net/ [2] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/vinagre/+bug/203782
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