Use a laptop as a 2nd display on Linux using FreeRDP

Barrier worked fine for my multi-OS use case (Windows, MacOS, various Linux distros).

For some reason, I had to restart Barrier periodically when I was on mesh wifi (by Vilo), but when I switched to a different wifi AP (Starlink's actually) Barrier worked consistently.

"The name debauchee is not professional and should not be associated to a popular project."

From the github thread linked above. How disgraceful.

Pay $29 once or use open source software with 600 open GitHub issues... :D

I had a quick look at Parsec and was surprised at how expensive it is - starts at $8.33 a month.

linux/android client only, last time I checked. Can't host on those platforms.

> Linux does not support hosting at this time and any computers on this operating system will not be listed.

https://support.parsec.app/hc/en-us/articles/4422939258893-P...

Ever since h264 there is a feature called intra-refresh, which allows you spread key frames over time, reducing the burstiness of the transmission (and therefore improving latency in most scenarios)

I've tried I think a couple of VNC-based solutions (since I've tried the most common, TigerVNC was very likely one of them), and they were extremely slow - I can't remember how fast, but something like 1/2 FPS.

This left me very perplexed, because on a 10 Mbit network, with 25-ms ping, a protocol must be very badly designed (or, to be more precise, very antiquated) to have such bad performance. So IMO, the bad reputation is justified.

Other FOSS solutions weren't better, in one way or another. The other one that worked out of the box was X2Go (based on NX 3), which was still very slow (and it seems to be abandoned nowadays).

Sadly, I had to move to a closed-source solution.

Closed source solutions are so fast that sometimes I forgot that I'm on a remote machine. I'm very puzzled why there is such a large gap between open and closed source solutions.

VNC is definitely easier to understand but the common servers usually leave a bad taste in my mouth after using them. RDP clients are often higher quality but there are many issues with (configuring) RDP servers right for Linux; however, GNOME's direct RDP integration has solved a lot of problems I was having before.

It certainly has its place, but as a remote desktop solution it is the simplest (and stupidest) way that functionality could possibly be implemented. VNC is what you use if you want to copy whatever is on the screen of the remote system, RDP is what you use if you want your displays connected to a remote system.

RDP lets you use all of the client's monitors, printers, clipboard, audio, USB devices, etc. as though they were plugged in to the host. The clipboard sharing extends to files, so you can drag and drop a file from the client to the host via the RDP window. If you lock your workstation at work with a bunch of running programs, drive home, and RDP into it, all of the applications will be moved to your RDP session and rearranged to fit your display(s). The next day you log back in at work and they get moved back to the local displays.

Oh, and did I mention all of this works well even on crap connections? I have been at jobs where a remote branch has such shit internet that they RDP into a VM at the head office to browse the internet because RDP uses less bandwidth than the sites they are browsing.

RDP is one of the things I miss using Linux.

source: spent years supporting Linux for my tech-illiterate parents.

> Also, to my understanding, Wayland is still not ready for such a use case.

With an example showing how to do it.

To answer your point, this wouldn't faze any sway user, and it is perfectly scriptable, you can add a button or script to perform the three server-side steps. Of course, gnome includes a button to cast to a nearby miracast-enabled screen.

I'm not answering to my mother, I'd set it up for her with a nice shortcut. And she probably wouldn't be using sway.

You also need a complex list of tasks for miracast.

* Turn on the TV (simple enough, but since we're counting steps...)

* Make sure the miracast option is enabled, and the TV is discoverable. That one is impossible to explain over the phone -- unlike a command line -- as every TV burries this under a different menu.

* Find the right button on the "client" PC (might require enabling an option before?) and click it.

    It is important to note that Miracast over Infrastructure is not a replacement for standard Miracast. Instead, the functionality is complementary, and provides an advantage to users who are part of the enterprise network.

    Discovery requests to identify Miracast receivers can only occur through the Wi-Fi adapter. Once the receivers have been identified, Windows 10 can then attempt the connection to the network.