We recently came across a Reddit thread where a user was ready to give up on Linux entirely because the user couldn’t get a seamless “one-to-one” remote desktop experience. Their conclusion? “Linux is just not ready for remote desktop.”
We both agree and disagree with that statement.
In our latest blog post, we break down why many users struggle with remote access (hint: it’s the “Console vs. Virtual Session” trap) and how ThinLinc provides that “Windows RDP-like” experience on Linux without being a cloud service.
I’ve been a avid user of Thinlinc for years now and I really like the project for what it is providing to us. I completely agree with your sentiment where you state that the Virtual session Thinlinc provides is very good in terms of resuming work on different clients with odd-sized (or counted) screens. It works almost anywhere, anytime, all the time.
The description of what you mentioned what the fixed workflow for the Reddit post would be. It actually makes sense in a way, because basically it’s similar to what Windows does. And given that Thinlinc can use GPU acceleration, it makes me wonder.
Would it make sense to add some (optional) packages to Thinlinc to add a login manager (or session that integrates with existing LMs) that runs on the console of the server (desktop in this case)? So logging in on that login manager would actually start a fullscreen thinlinc client on the localhost (and perhaps with the F8 menu disabled so you can’t accidentally disconnect it)
Because that would basically fix it and make it pretty seamless for the enduser if they want to have a mixed-use (local/remote) workstation.
It could be that this idea is absolute bogus, but hey, it might spark an actual smart idea with one of you guys
I haven’t tested it, but I don’t see why this wouldn’t be possible. You should be able to create a .desktop file (or whatever your display manager uses) which only launches the ThinLinc client. You could either use command line options or a .tlclient configuration file to start it in fullscreen, and log in automatically. The only trick would be passing the relevant username/password to the ThinLinc client, if you wanted it to be truly seamless.
I’ll add it to my “Rainy Day” list, but if you decide to try it before then, let us know how it goes!
Welcome back, and thank you for being such a long-time ThinLinc user!
We really appreciate your support and the kind words.
I absolutely love the creativity of this idea. It’s a brilliant concept to bridge the gap and get that mixed-use workstation feel without losing the benefits of a virtual session.
@Aaron laid out a great starting point below for how this might actually work in practice. What do you think of his approach? If you end up tinkering with it, we’d love to hear how it goes!
