Best screensharing apps for Puppy?

[jhecht]

Hi all,

I'm having some problems getting consistent screen sharing to work on different Puppy installs. I'm using Slacko Puppy 5.6.0 for the basic install in all cases.

I'm converting them to Puppy Linux to save the cost of a new Windows unit. The new users are delighted with Puppy, but I need some >reliable< way to screen share with the newly minted Puppy users to assist them.

On some installs, Team Viewer works perfectly, but not on others - using the same build of Puppy in all cases (Slacko 5.6.0) and the same version of TV. I think either TV 9 or 10. These are all full Puppy installs with no other OS present. I don't see the point of a frugal install when Puppy is the only OS on the computer.

As I couldn't get TV working in all cases, I then tried to get Screenleap working, but that failed too, as I didn't have the Java Runtime Environment installed. After hitting that wall, I tried to install the JRE, and couldn't find the right way to do so.

So I'm appealing for help to others who know more about these programs!

The goal of my efforts is to be able to (easily) screen share with end users. I'm a computer tech and have a >lot< of Windows users with older computers running XP/Vista/ME.

Can folks suggest the best way for me to procede? Thanks in advance for your help!

[bark_bark_bark]

What tasks do you want to perform remotely? If you're okay with a lot of stuttering, RDP or VNC would be acceptable options.

[jhecht]

What tasks do you want to perform remotely? If you're okay with a lot of stuttering, RDP or VNC would be acceptable options.

Basically maintenance work like virus/spyware removal, defrags, installation of utility/clean up programs. Do you have URLs? Which one works better? Thanks!

[starhawk]

I assume you are not RDPing into Windows from Puppy for the purposes of this post.

Puppy needs neither defragging (unless you are fool enough to use FAT32 instead of ext3/ext4) nor cleanup (along the lines of CCleaner), and the number of extant actual malware forms that can harm a modern Linux install can be counted on one hand with fingers left over. Check Wikipedia on the latter point -- there are only a fistful that ever existed (less than one hundred almost for sure), and the vast majority date from before the turn of the millennium. There ARE a number of vulnerabilities in Linux, across the board, but they are essentially meaningless, as the number of exploits of said vulnerabilities averages zero across the same board.

On the other hand, Windows needs all of those programs and bits of maintenance -- and then some. Windows has these issues. Puppy does not.

If you are introducing others to Puppy -- I would strongly recommend using ext3 or ext4 for the volume filesystem (ext2 corrupts easily), and encourage your fledgling and would-be Puppians to use savefolders rather than savefiles -- savefolders do not corrupt spontaneously. Please also, as a time and breath saver, explain to them that the supposed dangers of running as root, for the most part, do not apply in Puppy -- Puppy is a single user Linux -- and most of the argument for root + users is that everybody being root gives the ability to muck with someone elses' data which isn't cool. That's essentially impossible in Puppy even though the user *is* root. Also: don't use Fido / Spot in Puppy, they're far, far more trouble and instability than they're worth.

[jhecht]

SH>I assume you are not RDPing into Windows from Puppy for the purposes of this post.

Correct. My primary computer is Win7. This is the first time I've heard of RDP. And back to the main question of this thread, what are my best options for screen sharing on a Win to Win hookup? Or for a Win to Lin hookup? Team Viewer seems somewhat problematic... Most of my clients are Windows, some are Mac, none are Linux until I convert them.

I use Puppy for hardware testing, and for replacement of obsolete OSs and OSs that are too damaged to economically repair. All my Lin conversions use ext 2 or ext 3 filesystems. Reloading and patching a Windows OS is >many< hours of work. I can wipe the Win OS, load Puppy Linux in less than 2 hrs, and include data recovery along with some end user training in that time period. Plus, as we have all learned, Puppy is basically virus free - no small advantage.

I currently have 4 computers - 1 Win 7 unit which is my main box, 1 Win 2k unit that I have to keep to run my CAD program (Vectorworks), and 2 netbooks that I switched to Puppy when Win XP came to end of lifecycle. They are my field computers that I use to test Web connectivity and similar tasks. As I live in a small NYC apartment, that's enough computers for me (grin). Thanks for your feedback!

[cimarron]

For cross-platform, I'd definitely recommend TeamViewer. I've used it successfully on three linux computers (puppy and ubuntu), two Windows (7 and 10) and a Mac. I only found one computer that couldn't run TV 10, so had to run TV9 on that one. But a newer version of TV can control an older version successfully (just not the other way around). Now I primarily use TV11.

Unattended access has worked great for me on Windows (a little harder on linux); I use it almost daily. Wake-on-LAN is nice also to access a sleeping computer on your network. I mostly use TV LAN-only, but have occasionally used it over the internet.

If you want to try to sort out your TV problems, I could try to help...