[dmurray]

RDP isn't really meant to be cross platform, right? It's a Windows graphics server telling a Windows client how to draw some Windows widgets. The fact that there are working Linux implementations at all is impressive. By contrast, VNC is pretty close to just sending an image of the screen, with some clever optimization.

VNC over SSH should be as secure as you need, but it's never likely to be as performant as RDP.

[londons_explore]

> It's a Windows graphics server telling a Windows client how to draw some Windows widgets

In the 90's when everything was made of lines and rectangles, you're right that this deep integration made RDP perform much much better.

Now though, nearly all applications are composited bitmaps (webviews, opengl surfaces, etc). There isn't much scope for sending the raw draw calls over the wire anymore, and instead using some video codec to send the surfaces as bitmaps, and then compositing on the client is about the best you can do.

VNC doesn't even do that though...

[tasogare]

There is an official RDP client for macOS. I use it every to connect to the Windows PC under my desk, while using the monitors on my laptop.

[thayne]

keyword: client, not server.

[efreak]

This is part of why Windows is my main boot OS on my desktop. Remoting into Linux (whether it's my SBCs, laptop, or a VM) from Windows is easier and works better than the opposite.