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Introduction

This is the technical documentation of Deskterm. This documentation covers how Deskterm is developed and how it works. Deskterm is an app that gives you remote access to a virtual computer running in the cloud. The remote machine can be controlled both via a UI and a terminal. The deskterm clients include a web app, desktop apps and mobile apps.

Instant Workstation

The predecessor of Deskterm is Instant Workstation. Both products are very similar but the main difference is under the hood. Instant Workstation offers full fledged virtual machines running with QEMU in KVM mode. Deskterm only runs Docker containers. To most end-users this makes no difference, however this allows me to host more capacity as containers use up less resources than virtual machines. With the lowered cost, it is now possible to offer the remote desktops in multiple geographic locations.

Compared to Instant Workstation, Deskterm comes with the following enhancements:

  • Lower latency due to multiple geographic locations
  • Revamped UI and backend
  • Open source
  • Desktop and mobile apps

Author

I am Henrik Brüsecke, the author of this guide and developer of Deskterm. I am employed as a full-time software developer at a Nordic bank. Deskterm is a commercial side project which I develop and operate independently. Deskterm is not affiliated with any other company or party. Aside from Deskterm I also develop and operate the non-commercial side-project Epic Fantasy Forge I live in a city called Joensuu located in Eastern Finland.