You've probably heard of TeamViewer before, and maybe even used it. Software
like this is called Remote Desktop Software, because it allows you to control
the desktop of a machine from a remote location, obviously.
TeamViewer has for a long time been the go-to tool when it comes to RDC (remote
desktop control). I still remember using it quite extensively for my physics
studies at university, probably around 2015/2016. It was great that fellow
students and I could join a virtual meeting, where one person would open a
drawing program (like GIMP or Krita) and everyone was able to share his/her
formulas. In the end we had a giant virtual canvas with **all** the information
on it.
I also used TeamViewer in the past to help out my parents or friends, if they
had a pc problem where I knew this could be fixed with just two clicks. No need
to travel for an hour if I can do it over the internet in 5 minutes.
And then came the corona virus pandemic. Suddenly, sharing your desktop with
others became a necessity. And TeamViewer (the company is german and also called
TeamViewer) noticed the chance and changed pricing. It is now **expensive**.
[Really expensive](https://service.teamviewer.com/en-de/overview).
I can't understand why people would pay that much.
For years, the _Free OpenSource Software_ community has struggled to create a
serious alternative to TeamViewer. I'm not even going into the reasons why that
might be, because it's probably for a bunch of different things.
But a few days ago, I found a new light beginning to shine in the RDC space:
[RustDesk](https://rustdesk.com/).
It's [FOSS](https://github.com/rustdesk/rustdesk). It **does** have default
servers, which makes it extemely convenient and easy to use. But it also offers
[FOSS server software](https://github.com/rustdesk/rustdesk-server-demo)
to host by yourself. I've tried it between Linux machines, but also
cross-platform between Linux and Windows, and it worked like a charm. It didn't
even struggle with 4K, nor with wayland, nor with desktop scaling, much to my
surprise.
So if you happen to be someone who could benefit from remote desktop control,
maybe give RustDesk a try? Most FOSS has nobody advertising for it other than
the members of the community. So if you happen to know someone else who could
like this software, please, feel free to recommend trying it out to them.
