Rdesktop

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The correct title of this article is rdesktop. The initial letter is shown capitalized due to technical restrictions.

rdesktop

Developer:	rdesktop team
Latest release:	1.5.0 / September 13, 2006
OS:	UNIX-like
Use:	Microsoft Terminal Services client
License:	GPL
Website:	http://www.rdesktop.org

rdesktop is a RDP client for most Unix-like systems such as BSD and Linux. It is free, open source software, released under the GNU General Public License. rdesktop interacts with Microsoft Terminal Services.

rdesktop connecting to Windows NT 4.0

rdesktop on Mac OS X connected to Windows Server 2003

[edit] Using rdesktop

rdesktop is started by pointing the program to a computer running Windows Terminal Services.

rdesktop 192.168.1.10

This starts rdesktop, opens up a terminal session on the machine indicated, and opens a Windows login screen on the machine with the IP 192.168.1.10. By default rdesktop uses TCP port 3389.

One of the common scenarios is using rdesktop with some extra-light Linux distributive such as Thinstation or LTSP to build thin clients. E.g. a company has powerful Windows Server 2003 system running terminal services and line of business application. Thin client boots over network, downloads Thinstation with rdesktop and connects to Windows Server. A legacy PC such as a 100 MHz Pentium with 16 Mb RAM will do the job.