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Zippy, fast, responsive remote Desktops and Citrix-like Published Applications, all useable from the standard Ubuntu 18.04 repository, no more need to manually add a PPA.

TL;DR: https://wiki.x2go.org/doku.php/doc:newtox2go

Years ago most people began using FreeNX which used some open source parts of NX under the hood. Lately I have found that X2Go is the direct descendant and replacement for NX and FreeNX. Give it a try.

Actually is there any good AV solution for an IT department? And no saying telling users not to click on attachments won't fly?

Yes, its called Linux.

And in all seriousness, "Linux for the Internet stuff" can actually be a solution even in an otherwise Windows-only environment. No, you don't need a separate workstation next to your Windows PC, no, you don't need to run a virtual machine on it that slows it down to a crawl, no, you don't need VNC.

Just try X2Go. Works seamless with single applications (Browser, E-Mail, PDF viewer, Office) between Linux and Windows like Citrix (just the other way round - Linux server, Windows clients), has audio support as well, and separates the dangerous Internet from your priceless company and customer data.

See, for example:
http://wiki.x2go.org/doku.php/doc:deployment-stories:electronic-glovebox

Full Disclosure:
I'm the Lead Evangelist and Community Manager of X2Go, and my company also sells commercial support for such solutions. You're free to roll your own, though - X2Go is 100% F/LOSS, and always will be.

-Stefan Baur

X2go would be another option. It will do the X forwarding to a very nice client. I use it to remote into my Linux systems at home then RDP from there. http://wiki.x2go.org/

Yeah, just because I don't need that feature, lets rip it out for everyone, right?

That is very short sighted thinking. Sure the code is old. Sure it is crufty, but it works! Why remove something that is working now for something that may be created in the future? It would be a shame to throw out working code for a new unproven shiny binary. I'm all in favor of new stuff, but not when developers remove working features and promises they'll get to it later. It won't happen; if they wanted to do it, it would be done at the same time. It's a hard problem, and chances are, later will never come.

Before you criticize it, have tried to use the feature? It is immensely useful to be able to be able to render a single window locally without having to drag the system down rendering an entire desktop via VNC, RDP, NX, etc... Can single windows be rendered through RDP? Yes, sure. However, that requires some setup, where on Linux I just hop over to that server and type the command (usually with a &) and bam, local view of remote server.

All that aside, I'm not the only user of the technology. Other projects use it as well, such as WinSwitch, x2go, FreeNX, NoMachine's NX - although maybe less so since version 4. Try some of these, you might light what they offer.

> if anybody knows of one I would appreciate hearing about it.

try x2go: http://www.x2go.org/

1 Samsung Arm CB + x2go + Chrubuntu (13.10 xubuntu) =

full access to running programs on my home Linux PC from anywhere, with HUGE battery life, at less than 2 lbs and $250. With x2go I can run applications remotely, and the chromebook only has to handle the UI, not the actual processing. As a result, I can run Intel apps and it feels pretty fast, even from 2000 miles away. If the computer gets stolen, it's only a loss of $250 as opposed to the thousands a lightweight laptop would cost, and the data is on my home computer, not the cb...

x2go btw is amazing, tunneling linux application's interfaces through ssh, so they feel like they're running on the chromebook, but aren't. If you can set up ssh, you can set up x2go.

Another FLOSS project maintainer echoing this sentiment:

And: we do not want normal users to report bugs against X2Go. Someone who can handle debbugs will probably also write propert bug reports. It’s rather a tool for us developers and for power users of X2Go.

To publish Linux-based programs (and Windows-based ones which run fine on Wine) you might want to have a look at x2go, a project based on NX. I've used it for a few years without problems over all sorts of networks. Clients are available for 'the big three' (Linux, Windows, OSX), the server runs on Linux. Performance is good over a wide range of networks, all the way down to GPRS/dial-up.

If it were Linux machines by themselves, I'd suggest something along those lines- but since NX is proprietary from start to finsh these days, it's an also-ran.

X2Go is the FOSS solution stemming from the last FOSS release of the NX protocol- and it has clients for Windows, OSX, and Linux and is currently being maintained. I've switched my servers over to it with NoMachine making the decision they did.

Rather than freenx, which was never actually completed, try out NoMachine's nx server - I've done comparisons between them for work, and it is faster, as well as having more working features.

Did your comparisons include X2Go as well?
http://www.x2go.org/

If you're looking for a Linux host, with client software available for Windows, Mac OS and Linux, try X2Go. It's similar to NoMachine's NX (and in fact uses parts of their open-sourced components), but truly free as in speech for both server and client, not just free as in beer like the NX clients. (BTW, NoMachine is going closed-source with their upcoming release).

Disclaimer: I am not just a happy and satisfied user, but also the paying sponsor behind X2Go's individual application publishing mode.

X2Go URL: http://www.x2go.org/

That big message at the top that they're currently trying to consolidate the page might be notable. x2go is in the Ubuntu reps, and the Windows client works great. Also the download links from the normal site http://www.x2go.org work fine - I don't actually know how you navigated otherwise. Some metaphor about don't judge a book by it's cover would also be appropriate here.

I highly recommend giving it a go if you have Linux servers to maintain, since it's connections work like straight SSH connections (no additional ports or authentication mechanisms - which more or less seamlessly fixes problems with both VNC and the original NX) and it's very responsive and usable.

The x2go web page (http://www.x2go.org/doku.php/start) is a mess, the download page link is broken as well as numerous others e.g. http://plugin.x2go.org/ I hope their codebase is better maintained (doubtful, its not in git).

While pure, unadulterated X11 might not be the thing you'd want to run on your phone or tablet because of the chatty network protocol, there are some X11 derivatives which can make this fly. Have a look at the x2go project for an example of what I mean. Having X11 on Android means the x2go app is only a short development cycle away, and that is good news for those of us who like to move around while still needing access to something which only wants to run a gui.

This isn't another juvenile does-it-run-on-linux rant, but I think its reasonable to point out that remote full screen GUI access via X windows has been around since the mid 80s. A LONG time before any remote GUI windows app or even Windows itself existed.

Yeah, and unless you're connecting over a LAN connection, it's 100% terrible. That's why projects like FreeNX and x2go exist...to clean up the massive bloat and waste the X11 protocol introduces.