Connection flexibility
What options do you get when a connection is established?
During an active remote desktop session, you can ask Vinagre to stop sending keyboard and mouse input to the remote desktop and effectively turn it into a view-only session. Vinagre’s interface also includes a button to send (Ctrl+Alt+Del) and another to take a screenshot. You can also bookmark an active connection for quick access on subsequent connections, but you can’t alter the colour depth during an active connection. RealVNC is a little better as it enables you to tweak some connection options via a dedicated window. Like some of its peers, RealVNC uses an auto-hiding panel for accessing features such as the file transfer and chat. Alternatively, you can press the F8 key to display these options. Expert users can alter aspects of the VNC connection by changing the default values under the Expert tab.
The other three clients all allow you to change the encoding and colour format on the fly. TightVNC includes a toolbar at the top of the window with buttons to send keys such as Alt and Ctrl to the remote server. You can also disable clipboard transfer and alter how the mouse cursor is traced and the shape of the local cursor.
Similar to RealVNC, you can press the F8 key in an active session in TigerVNC to bring up a menu for viewing connection data and toggle the Ctrl and Alt special keys. You can also change the colour level and encoding of the connection and convert the session into a view-only one.
Finally, Remmina has a tabbed interface for managing multiple remote sessions from a single window. When connected, there are buttons for common tasks, such as switching to full-screen or scaled mode. You can also change the quality of the connection on-the-fly and send keyboard commands to the remote desktop.