[greedo]

And there's a Mac version distributed for OSX/macOS by Microsoft that's arguably superior to the Windows client. But I understand the RDP protocol. In a decent corp environment with a gigE LAN, the data compression benefits of RDP compared to TeamViewer or Apple's Remote Desktop aren't that necessary.

[slantyyz]

>> In a decent corp environment with a gigE LAN, the data compression benefits of RDP compared to TeamViewer or Apple's Remote Desktop aren't that necessary.

The performance gap is very noticeable even on GB LAN, especially as the screen resolution goes up. There were a couple of products on Mac that were almost as fast as Windows RDP, but they weren't cheap, and one of the two major companies (iRapp from CodeRebel [1]) went out of business earlier this year. I can't remember the name of the second company, but I think it came from an academia background.

1: https://www.coderebel.com/about/

[Thiez]

> The performance gap is very noticeable even on GB LAN, especially as the screen resolution goes up.

I find that hard to believe, I can play games like Rayman (that require reflexes and a low latency) over my steam link on a 100mbit network. Surely on a GB LAN there shouldn't be noticeable latency?

[Mithaldu]

Is steam link VNC?

I've played games via VNC, but only visual novels. In all cases i've known real games require special transmission protocols, which operate in a specific domain, and are a lot faster than RDP, which operates in a broader domain, and is faster than VNC, which is the most general solution.

[Thiez]

I'm not sure exactly how it works, as far as I am aware it streams video and sound, and sends back input, but I'm not sure about the underlying protocol. I think the resolution is 1080p. But regardless of the underlying technology they use, they've clearly proven that you can get a great remote desktop experience on a sub-GB lan without using RDP.

[Mithaldu]

Sure, just not with VNC. :)

[WayneBro]

OK you can focus on the little nuances of whether RDP is better or not on Windows or Mac. The fact is that becomes built into windows where is you have to buy it for the Mac. You also cannot RDP from windows to a Mac. And team viewer is ridiculously expensive.

Please ignore the other fact that I stated about how big companies have to build their own systems management frameworks for the Mac though. And I think you probably know that there is a ton of other software that just does not exist for the Mac. So you're going to end up writing your own and that is definitely not cheaper than buying it off the shelf and many many many cases.

[greedo]

Large corporations generally use JAMF Pro for managing fleets of Macs. It makes it pretty trivial compared to the hassles of using SCCM/SCOM for Windows desktops.

You can always use VNC to connect to a Mac, though that's not the best tool. If you're deploying and managing more than 10 or so Macs, the price for JAMF or other tools isn't an issue.