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submitted 1 day ago by rbn@sopuli.xyz to c/linux@lemmy.ml

Hello all,

I'm planning to install Linux Mint on the notebooks of some relatives as it's not compatible with Windows 11 and thus not getting security updates anymore. They are absolutely not tech savvy and only using very basic stuff (web browser, print documents, maybe low level office stuff). Still I'm looking for a way to support them with some kind of remote control software if they have an issue. On Windows I liked Teamviewer for it's simplicity, they can double click the icon and tell me the code that is displayed and that's it. Is there something similar for Linux which doesn't require complex setup on their end? FOSS is a plus, but not a must have.

Regards, rbn

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[-] brickfrog@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Not Teamviewer-ish but on Windows I've set up a simple batch file that launches a reverse VNC connection (using TightVNC) from the remote system to myself in the case someone needs me to look at something on their desktop. Nothing fancy about it, just something simple to get going if you don't want or need anything more complex.

Haven't done it on Linux yet but I suspect a bash script + a VNC app (TigerVNC maybe?) would be able to do the same thing.

[-] digdilem@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Please, don't expose VNC to the internet, ever. It's a horrendously insecure protocol that uses plaintext passwords of no more than 8 characters and everything that passes over the connection is unencrypted and visible to anyone sniffing the traffic.

Once it was the only option, but there are dozens of better things out there now which should be used, even on a lan or vpn.

this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2026
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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