To open a Windows desktop from a Linux computer there are three ways. They share the same engine, FreeRDP; what changes is how much is done for you.
- FreeRDP, Remmina or a thin client OS?
- Why is Remote Desktop slow from Linux?
- Can I connect to Windows Home?
- Two monitors, sound, webcam, USB
FreeRDP (xfreerdp, sdl-freerdp) |
Remmina | OpenThinRDP | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | the RDP client itself, from the command line | a desktop application with saved connections, on FreeRDP | a whole system that starts straight into the Windows sign-in, on FreeRDP |
| For | one Linux user who wants control | a Linux desktop that sometimes opens Windows | computers whose only job is Windows: terminals, thin clients, old PCs |
| RDP over UDP | not in the released versions (merged on 20 October 2026, see UDP) | as its FreeRDP | built in, falls back to TCP |
| RD Connection Broker, RDS, VDI | by hand, with options | partly | built in: broker, collections, Kerberos, RD Gateway |
| Locked down for users | no | no | kiosk: no desktop, no terminal |
| Many computers | set up one by one | set up one by one | one shared folder, signed updates with pilot devices and a way back |
On a Linux PC you use for other things too, Remmina is the simple choice. On a computer that should only open Windows, a desktop with Remmina has to be locked down and kept up to date by hand; that is what OpenThinRDP does for you (the alternatives).
The most common causes, in order:
- TCP on a line that loses packets (Wi-Fi, VPN, a busy link). Windows' own client switches to UDP; Linux clients based on a released FreeRDP stay on TCP, and TCP stops at every lost packet. With UDP, on a line losing 50% of its packets we measured 19-21 frames per second, where TCP was down to 0.6 at 20% (measurements).
-
Graphics mode: without the GFX pipeline (
/gfx) the screen is sent as plain bitmaps. OpenThinRDP uses it by default, with the progressive codec that keeps text sharp on servers without a GPU (RDP_GFX). - The packaging: a Flatpak or Snap of Remmina can be slower than the native package on some systems.
- The server: a busy session host or VM is slow from any client; the manager's health check shows it.
No: Windows Home can connect to others but cannot be connected to with Remote Desktop, from any client. Windows Pro, Enterprise, Education and Windows Server can (Settings > System > Remote Desktop). A Windows virtual machine on Hyper-V, Proxmox or VMware usually runs Pro or Server and can. Upgrading Home to Pro is done from Settings > System > Activation.
With OpenThinRDP:
- Several monitors become one Windows desktop across all of them.
- Sound and microphone through the RDP audio channels; webcams through the RDP camera channel, seen by Teams, Zoom and the browser in the session.
- USB sticks appear in Windows as drives; signature keys and special devices are passed whole; smart card readers through the smart card channel.
- Printers: a network printer is used by Windows directly; a USB printer can be passed whole to Windows.
Try it from a USB stick, live, without touching the disk: getting started.
This page is docs/guides/linux-rdp-client.md as published on GitHub, where the documentation, the releases and the discussions are.