My use case is pretty unusual, but I don't think that should matter. I'm looking to use my laptop to remote into my gaming desktop so I can run LLLMs from my couch. My ideal is free and open source, but I'd consider something proprietary or costing a one time fee. My only deal breakers are ongoing subscriptions and anything that sends data through their servers.
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Nice try FBI.
For remote gaming Steam is pretty good. I don't know if that works on Linux.
For non-gaming, I just use VNC.
Hmm. That would be cool to try to run some of my more performance intensive games on my laptop. I'm still on Windows for now but I'll to switch to Linux when Microsoft's bullshit becomes too unbearable, which will probably sooner rather than later based on recent events. I'll look into VNC for my needs.
For Windows most things are going to be worse than the Remote Desktop built into Windows. They've put a lot of work into it in the past 10 years or so.
If you're worried about security I'm sure you can find things online about how to secure it.
If you are on Windows, Remote Desktop is installed by default. VNC is pretty good, too.
Do you know if Remote Desktop sends data to Microsoft? That's my main concern. I don't want to add even more spyware to my system.
As far as I know, no. RDP is a standardized protocol so there is a lot of documentation out there. It is encrypted but since I assume this is all on your own local network that most likely isn't a huge concern for you.
Pretty sure it's already installed by default. I could be wrong though since I never bother with the Home versions of Windows. Using RDP isn't going to give them access to anything they don't already have access to anyway. If you've installed Windows, you've crossed that bridge already.
Which brings us to the correct answer: SSH with X11 forwarding.
It definitely doesn't have to because you can use it on completely private networks. And no I don't think it does in general. If Microsoft adds anything onto the service, beyond you just running mstsc.exe or clicking "Remote Desktop Connection", I'd start to worry. For instance, I would expect that "Windows ask for help" feature spies on you.
You mentioned games: Steam can also show your desktop and I think any program you want. It's just optimized for games. The most optimized protocol is Microsoft's own RDP (remote desktop), but that is far from free, starting with the fact that you have to pay for Windows Pro to even have any remoting capability.
VNC isn't always free. It's based on open source, but at least one company sells a paid version with services. The free version of that -- I think it's RealVNC will also serve as a proxy for you which is convenient for not having to rig up your own solution. Accepting an incoming connection is above many people's ability to manage it.
What are LLLMs?
I'm familiar with a similar term in AI, but this acronym has an extra L than I'm used to.
Laughably Large Language Models.
(...ok maybe Local, as in locally hosted not in the cloud)
Moonlight for anything not covered by steam remote play or big picture mode.
xrdp is a remote desktop server for linux. It works ok but doesn't work nearly as well as it does on Windows over slower networks
I have to remote desktop into an Ubuntu system over a VPN for work stuff, and it's faster to RDP into a Windows system on the same remote LAN and use that remote Windows system to RDP into the Ubuntu system than RDP-ing directly into the Ubuntu system.