MiniVNC Remote Desktop Server for vintage Macintosh computers #Retrocomputing
MiniVNC is a remote desktop server that has been written from the ground up for best performance on 68k Macintosh computers.
It was originally an experiment to see whether a Macintosh Plus could be controlled remotely, but has since been expanded to support color on all vintage color Macs!
The goal of MiniVNC is to provide better performance and compatibility with older Macs than ChromiVNC
It accomplishes these goals by:
Using Classic Networking (i.e. MacTCP) rather than Open Transport
Implementing a limited subset of the Remote Framebuffer Protocol, which favor of performance over full compatibility with all clients.
Implements fast but inexact screen change detection, favoring performance and low memory utilization while allowing for the occasional missed update and visual artifacts.
Written in C++, with optimized 68x assembly code where necessary for best performance.
MiniVNC is built on MacTCP and requires System 7, but it will operate on later Macs using Open Transport. MiniVNC has been developed and tested using a RaSCSI device operating as an Ethernet bridge, but should also work using a Mac with a built-in Ethernet port.
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