What tools would you recommend for organizing the work of thin clients on Linux?

Question

linux

Good afternoon dear!
There is a task to organize the work of several developers and testers on the principle of a thin client on linux.
There is a powerful rented Dell server, but in a European DC with a not very good ping from us to it (> 50 ms). In the office, the Internet is also not the best, and some employees sometimes have to work via mobile Internet.
It is necessary to organize the work of developers (the main linux system) using remote access to the server.
Main tasks : working with VirtualBox virtual machines, surfing in the browser.
Based on the fact that all the main work will be done with virtual machines, there is no need to buy or rent a server with Windows Server, due to this you can seriously save money by installing Linux. It would seem that everything is simple, there are a lot of options, but in practice I had to face a lot of nuances that just baffle out of the blue so far.
So what comes to mind? There are a lot of solutions for remote access to visuals on linux: ssh -X, vnc, xrdp, x2go, nomachines. Having tried everyone, they were disheartened, it was not possible to make any of the options work normally.
The main problem is the smoothness of work, which is out of the box via RDP on Windows Server 2016, it was not possible to achieve it on any of the remote access methods. It is understood that a very large part of the work is surfing the Internet. And here is the simplest task - scrolling even the main page of the habr turns into hell and pain for the eyes. Pictures are displayed in jerks and from such surfing the eyes get tired after a few minutes.
To summarize briefly, remote access surfing:
Windows Server 2016 - on 5 (minimal friezes are observed)
ssh -XC .. (as soon as I didn’t twist the settings) - 3-, terribly slow and unpleasant
vnc (tigervnc) - 4-, there is smoothness, even at the minimum color settings it is not possible to get close to WS.
x2go- 4 is generally quite good, although WS is again far from smooth even at maximum compression settings.
nomachines - 3, surprisingly, in almost a decade of development, the mountain gave birth to a mouse. The usability of the client is a separate conversation, here it’s an amateur (but as for me it’s far from the x2go fork), but the quality of the picture drops wildly with a decrease in the quality of the Internet. And if WS even on a weak RDP channel works quite confidently without loss of quality, then nomachines pours artifacts. And while scrolling is relatively smooth, the quality of the clipped picture sucks terribly. I tried all codecs and settings, the result is deplorable.
xrdp - 4- , just works, slightly slower than x2go. Yes, and this is a crutch, as for a bunch of linux-linux.
In addition, there were some strange problems with the latest VirtualBox. vnc, xrdp - when loading a virtual machine and trying to deploy it to any resolution higher than 640x480, the machine turns off without errors in the logs (the last entry is that they say I'm trying to set the resolution .. )
Transferring the clipboard between the guest and virtual machines does not work with x2go. I saw tickets describing the problem from 14 years old, but it seems like nothing was fixed.
In general, I am at a crossroads, where to move is not clear. I will try other distributions.
And all of the above was tested in a bunch of Debian (client) - Debian (server).
Putting a server in the office is not an option due to the geographical component, and improving the Internet for the time being too. The most annoying thing is that Windows Server 2016 works smoothly and clearly right out of the box, on Linux, on the other hand, you have to constantly stumble over something new. But I really don’t want to pay extra and a lot of money for litsuhu WS, because. nothing but RDP will be used there.
So maybe someone else can suggest some other options. I love pure linux distributions, but I will already agree to any specialized solution, incl. and paid, if it costs adequate money and works without bugs and smoothly on our channels. Really there is no analog to screw RDP in linux?

Answer 1

I use the client www.parallels.com/products/ras/download/links/#lin - it's free, I'm happy,
but they also have a server, apparently paid, find out the conditions

Answer 2

XRDP works great. True, with the settings you will have to suffer.

Answer 3

nixts.org/doku.php?id=start
if you want to make it really beautiful, you can even not take screws on computers.
apt-get install remmina- if you need a good RDP client.

Answer 4

VNC
www.tightvnc.com/vncserver.1.php

-depth depth
Set the color depth of the visual to provide, in bits per pixel. Must be a value between 8 and 32.
-pixelformat rgbNNN|bgrNNN
Set color format for pixels representation. The viewer can do the conversion to any other pixel format, but it is faster if the depth and pixel format of the server is the same as the equivalent values ​​on the viewer display.

Answer 5

Change virtualbox to kvm+spice, just don't forget to install vdagent for guests and specify qxl vga in the settings.
I don't know about the latest versions of rdp, but it was faster than the windows 7 implementation of rdp.

Answer 6

In general, the task is strange in itself.
For example, Linux developers don't need a GUI at all.
There is git that you can push. Docker for fast environments.
Using SSH, you can get the file system and work as if it were your own in a familiar environment.
Loading an IDE remotely is a perversion.
Using VB is generally a strange idea. Very strange, since it is braked by definition.
Use the bundle from KVM\LXC\Docker.
With a very strong desire, you can organize access to the LXC graphical environment, for example, through Space.
RH has a ready-made solution with VDI, so as not to reinvent the wheel. Canonicle has a similar solution. Yes, they all cost money, but it will work and solve the problem. True, it will be necessary to calculate how much it will all be cheaper, better than MS with its Win Server.
You can use x2go, etc., etc.
https://www.sanglyb.ru/comment/93
But I strongly advise you to think about how all this will work for you and how it is more convenient to do it for the majority. Does the developer need a graph environment, etc. etc. Especially since you don't have a very good internet connection.
Although if there is a danger that they can come, then the question is removed.