Virtual Network Computing (VNC)


What is VNC? - A practical introduction

NOTA BENE: content of this page has been borrowed from the VNC site. All credits for development of VNC go to Olivetti Research Laboratories (now ATT Laboratories), Cambridge, UK.

VNC stands for Virtual Network Computing. It is, in essence, a remote display system which allows you to view a computing 'desktop' environment not only on the machine where it is running, but from anywhere on the Internet and from a wide variety of machine architectures. 

Example screenshots using X desktops

The VNC system allows you to access the same desktop from a wide variety of platforms.
Many of us, for example, use a VNC viewer running on a PC on our desks to display our Unix environments which are running on a large server in the machine room downstairs. 

What makes it different from other systems?

For this simple mode of operation, you could achieve a similar effect by installing an X server on your PC. The important factors which distinguish VNC from other remote display systems such as X are as follows: 

Where does the name come from?

The name originates from our development of very-thin-client ATM network computers. The Videotile was essentially an LCD display with a pen input and a fast ATM connection. Because the VNC viewer is a software-only version of this 'ATM Network Computer', and so provides 'workstations' which can be created or deleted at will, we named the system Virtual Network Computing. 

Visit the VNC site for more information.