Hello all: At the risk of seeming self-centered, I thought I should introduce myself and my employer, and explain how we use VNC and why I'm interested in TigerVNC development.
I am the lead programmer for Serotek Corporation, a small American company that develops and markets software and Web-based services for people who are blind or have limited vision. Our flagship product is System Access (SA), a screen reader for Windows which has two primary claims to fame (in our currently small market): the ability to run on any Windows XP or later computer without installation or admin privileges, and a version called SA to Go (www.satogo.com) which can be used free of charge with a few limitations. Our primary Web-based service is called the System Access Mobile Network (SAM Net). Our web site, www.serotek.com, explains that in more detail. As part of SA and SAM Net, we offer two remote desktop access features based on VNC plus proprietary protocols. All of the proprietary stuff is separate from our version of VNC and runs in parallel with the VNC session; we haven't extended the RFB protocol at all. Anyway, one of these two features is called "remote control" and allows a SAM Net subscriber to connect to one of his or her PCs remotely. The other is called "remote training and support" and allows a SAM Net subscriber to connect to another SA user (who need not subscribe to SAM Net). We later created two more (confusingly named) products that are independent of SA but based on the same code: Remote Incident Manager (RIM) and Remote Access Manager (RAM). Again, visit the web site if you want marketing blurbs. Currently we use a modified version of the VNC4 branch of TightVNC for both the viewer and the server. In accordance with the GPL, the code is available here: http://download.samobile.net/opensource/serotek-tightvnc-snapshot.7z That archive actually contains my Bazaar working copy/repository (imported from SVN using the bzr-svn plug-in), so you can see the full change history. Anyway, I doubt that I've done anything that the TigerVNC project would want. Besides, I deviated too far from the upstream code, largely to reduce the size of the executables, and for a while I was negligent about committing to the repository. I will not repeat these mistakes if we decide to switch to TigerVNC. Like the people who started TigerVNC, I'm interested in this project because I want to use the VNC4 codebase in our products, but RealVNC apparently isn't doing any more work on the Free Edition, and Constantin has apparently abandoned that branch of TightVNC in favor of the old VNC3 codebase. My primary concern about TigerVNC is that none of the main contributors listed on the home page seem interested in the Windows server. I say this for two reasons: First, all three of these organizations use TigerVNC for projects in which only the Unix server is relevant. Second, the Windows autotools build system only covers the viewer. So I wonder if someone will do something to TigerVNC that breaks the Windows server, making me the Windows server maintainer by default if we use TigerVNC. I'm not complaining about that; I understand that open source is about giving back, not just getting software for free (and then profitting from it). I just want to understand this project's scope and priorities before I get involved. Anyway, I think that's enough from me for now. Matt ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This SF.net email is sponsored by: High Quality Requirements in a Collaborative Environment. Download a free trial of Rational Requirements Composer Now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/www-ibm-com _______________________________________________ Tigervnc-devel mailing list Tigervnc-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/tigervnc-devel
