remote desktop code

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Brent W. Baccala

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Feb 24, 2021, 12:29:25 AM2/24/21
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Hi -

The remote desktop code continues to move along.  There'll be a pull request soon, but since Fred Dixon has indicated that anything as large as this is unlikely to get reviewed for 2.3.0, I'm not rushing towards a PR.  Maybe it'll end up in 2.3.1.

If anybody wants to try it out, the install process has been much streamlined.  It's really just like a standard BBB install at this point, just with a modified bbb-install script and a custom repository.  Instructions can be found on my github page:


A number of people have used it and liked it.  I've got one corporate client running classes regularly on it, with excellent feedback.  That's really the target use case: classes where each student has a remote desktop and the teacher can see all of the student desktops and interact with them.  In my client's case, they're doing training on a web-based product, so they want the student desktops to have web browsers connected to their training system, and it works fine.

A common request from other people is to use it for remote control.  That would require additional software to be installed on the participant's machine - a VNC server, probably coupled with a VPN client.  It's not my target use case, but if somebody wanted to, they could look into packaging up a VNC server/VPN client combo that could be offered in some kind of click-to-download link.  It's not high on my priority list, but definitely something that Zoom offers, and BBB could too.

Meanwhile, I'm focusing on cleaning up the core VNC/BBB client software, and extending the multi-desktop service so that it can handle OSs other than Linux.  The basic VNC client works with any VNC server, but the collaborative mode where the students all get different desktops and the teacher can see everything currently only works on Linux.

That's all for now...

    agape
    brent


Fred Dixon

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Feb 24, 2021, 6:17:13 AM2/24/21
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Hi Brent,

Thanks for sharing this with the community!  

While we are pretty focused on getting 2.3-dev to a beta and then release, I think there will definitely be others in the community that will benefit from the work that you've done to allow remote desktops to be shared with VNC within BigBlueButton.

It shows that while we're very focused on building the most learning-centric virtual classroom for teachers and students, BigBlueButton also serves as a platform upon which others can build additional capabilities. 

Your project is a great example of how others can build upon BigBlueButton.
 
Regards,... Fred

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