Software

Guacamole uses two parts: a backend service (guacd) and a web interface (usually via Tomcat). The backend handles the connection; the web app handles the users.

X2Go doesn’t show up in mainstream remote access discussions, but maybe that’s because it just works. It’s not shiny, not trendy, and doesn’t come wrapped in a browser-based portal. But if the job is to connect to a real Linux desktop, reliably, over SSH — it does exactly that.

MeshCentral isn’t a service — it’s a server. It’s what happens when remote access is needed, but the idea of routing everything through someone else’s cloud doesn’t sit right. Designed and maintained by Ylian Saint-Hilaire at Intel, MeshCentral is an open-source, self-hosted platform for managing remote systems — desktops, laptops, and even headless hardware — through a central web interface.

There are situations — often in design, video work, or 3D modeling — where any lag between a click and the result on screen isn’t just annoying, it’s a dealbreaker.