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Well, vnc4server does have MIT-SHM, so no problem there.

Xdummy lives here (and I think it's also included in x11vnc source releases), not sure whether it's packaged for Ubuntu and if so where (you might check x11vnc, but it's not there in Debian) -- I just installed it manually. It's just a wrapper script that generates a modified version of your Xorg.conf (mainly to change the video driver to "dummy") and does some LD_PRELOAD magic to avoid certain standard Xorg behavior like switching VTs (which would otherwise result in needless chaos on headful systems, or errors on headless VPSes that have no VTs).

The principal benefit of Xdummy over the various dedicated VNC+X servers (including vnc4server) is that you get a mainline Xorg server, with a lot of features that turn out to be useful -- stuff like DRI2, Composite, RENDER, and (pretty sure vnc4server has this, but some don't) RANDR. The former three mostly so you can run practically any desktop program without worrying about missing extensions, the latter so you can handily resize it when you resize the client window or start a client on a different system, and don't want scrolling or wasted space.

Also, x11vnc is pretty featureful (e.g. server-side scaling -- great for use with mobile/tablet clients which often lack client-side scaling) in ways the VNC+X servers typically aren't (or permit changing only at startup) -- not that you can't run vnc4server, then ignore its built-in VNC server and start x11vnc to take advantage of those features, but that's redundant. IMO it's more sensible to separate the X server and the VNC server into separate programs.

The same setup can be used with a remote linux client using x11vnc.

http://www.karlrunge.com/x11vnc/faq.html#faq-reverse-connect

I use this at work to support Laptop users in the field.

Unfortunately for them, they run Windows as their primary desktop and thus, in order to run their remote app, they have 2 choices

What about just using X11 native on Windows?

I even have users asking for VNC on the server... LOL Hey, man you're not alone on this host!

Well, you could set up multiple instances vnc terminal server or get users to launch their own independent sessions. Perhaps you are thinking of X11VNC which does let you take control of the console session.

I think that Wayland developers are that kind of users with that kind of needs.

I wish it was so. Most likely is they want to leave their mark no matter what anybody needs or wants. Others need to justify a paycheck. Some believe in their personal brilliance but they all end up like Ozymandias.

These guys produce a patched tightvnc that has scaling and some other goodies. Pressing F8 brings up the UI for it:

http://www.karlrunge.com/x11vnc/ssvnc.html

They have source and binaries for a number of platforms. Their focus is on wrapping a friendly UI for tunneling VNC over SSH but the tightvnc binary they give you has the goodies even if run directly.

Use screen for terminals. x11vnc for GUI. x11vnc can be run over encryption. Look at http://www.karlrunge.com/x11vnc/ for more info.

Question: What if I wanted to share the desktop with the guy sitting there? Is that possible?

By default, I believe, you'd receive a new desktop each time you connected to a VNC server. However using software such as x11vnc you can certainly share the currently visible desktop, or just a window from it.

I wrote this simple guide last year which should document the process a little.

you can't use ssh to connect to your Mom's machine in a different city and help figure out why she has trouble using/interacting with Kmail or some other GUI program. But with vncserver + vncviewer, you CAN.

I use X11VNC. Of course, for a conceptual equivalent to screen (which requires you to start all applications inside of it), just run a VNC server on your local box and fullscreen the viewer.

The Debian "stable" vs. unstable seems to match the new RedHat "Enteprise" releases vs. the new "FEdora". Maybe Debian can shorten their transfer time and testing enough to use "stable" for production servers? I know a bunch of people who'd like that.

We [beware of the Marketing people's use of shockwave and flash] already do that. I'm sure many others do to. We count on stable being secure and reliable. We're ok with it being relatively slow moving, if that's what it takes. A few select applications, such as X11VNC are brought in from testing or unstable, or made into custom packages internally. It works great.

We would like to see some newer software make it's way into stable, such as subversion. Right now I run a mixed testing/unstable at work, and a mixed unstable/experimental at home. I've never had a problem, though I do take time to understand what the effects of an update will be on the unstable and especially the experimental applications.

Others have mentioned tightvnc (which requires you to run a separate server if under X) or ultravnc (which is windows only and has a closed-source component). If you want to grab a window from an existing X server, use x11vnc. Between the three your bases should be covered.

For our part, here's what we've settled on:

x11vnc -forever -passwd mysecretpw

x0rfbserver hasn't been updated in forever. Use X11VNC to export your local X display. I spent forever looking for x0rfb updates before I found that. It's much more stable, faster, and has better compression options.

x0rfbserver let's you do this. It allows a VNC client to connect to your currently running X session, but unfortunately the project seems to have died. A quick google search found x11vnc which seems to do the required.