FreeNX – the free NX

FreeNX – the free NX

FreeNX is the Open Source version of NoMachine. No Machine is a remote access client similiar to Symantec’s PCAnywhere and VNC.

Since the NoMachine client can use SSH (Secure Shell) it is very secure. VNC is not secure because all VNC network traffic is sent without encryption. On a small firewalled network that is not much of an issue for VNC but in a hostile environment such as the Internet using VNC is not recommended.

FreeNX is supposed to be more responsive over slower connections. But I haven’t had a chance to test performance.

Setup for FreeNX is more involved than VNC. The question is still open for whether that extra effort is worth the FreeNX benefits.
Because the client for Windows uses components from Cygwin, there’s the risk of conflicting Cygwin versions.
The FreeNX server is Unix/Linux X Windows based. When using VNC the server component can be run on a Windows system so that it can be controlled remotely. There are extra steps involved for connecting a FreeNX client to control a Windows system remotely.