Linux rDesktop versus Windows RDP

[mcouper]

Hi everyone,

Comparison: Wyse 9450xe thin client with 2 x 500MB RAM sticks.

Either running Windows XP embedded and RDP into a Windows 2008 R2 server, or running Tiny Core (latest distro) and rDesktop into the same server via USB flash drive.

There is one application on the server that seems to use up all of the CPU on the thin client rendering it unusable when using Tiny Core. XP embedded using RDP still has a noticeable difficulty with the same application, but does work.

I need somebody who knows how both RDP and rDesktop work. Why can rDesktop not do what RDP does using exactly the same hardware?

[andyj]

Is it a graphics intensive application? The first thing that comes to mind is that the windows driver may have better acceleration than the one you are using for TC. Are you using Xvesa or an accelerated Xorg driver?

[curaga]

RDP is a closed protocol.

Obviously Microsoft's client will be better than a reverse-engineered client such as rdesktop or freerdp, they have all the info on the protocol. You could try if it runs in Wine.

[Rich]

Hi mcouper
A couple of things you could try:
1. Go to  Computer->Properties->Remote settings->Advanced->Performance->-Visual Effects  and select
    Adjust for best performance.
2. Enable compression. If you are using  FreeRDP  that would be the  -z  option.

[genec]

1) Are you sure if it's the CPU and not the graphics subsystem or the networking?
2) If it's the CPU, compression should make it worse.  If it's the networking, compression should make it better.  If it's the graphics, I'm not sure if it'll make a difference or what direction the difference would be.
3) The "distance" from the client to the server may make a difference if it's beyond about 2-3 switches away or goes through a firewall or other device that may introduce more latency.