Many experienced PC users help family and friends manage and maintain their computers. However, if their family and friends live far away, they usually use remote access programs (also known as remote desktop programs). The software displays the remote computer's desktop on the local screen (in simplified form) so that the helper can work on the remote computer as if sitting in front of it. Typical functions of this type of software include screen sharing, remote maintenance, and file transfer; they also often allow audio and video chats.

Competition

The proprietary software TeamViewer [1] is the top dog among remote desktop applications. The company has developed a comfortable position in the market in recent years and provides its software free of charge for private use. Around two years ago, competition arose from within the company's own ranks: Three former employees put the proprietary tool AnyDesk [2] on the market. The developers wholeheartedly claim that AnyDesk is the fastest remote desktop application in the world and that it provides new dimensions for working on remote computers. The company behind the software, philandro, sees the software as the first of a series of products that aim to protect privacy and put cloud services back into private hands.

After the end of the one-year beta phase for the Windows version in the summer of 2015, a beta version was released in November for Linux and BSD derivatives. Despite being a beta version, the Linux version now has the same version number 2.1.1 as the Windows release. AnyDesk provides its software as a tarball with sources, as well as in the form of packages for Debian and its offshoots, various Fedora versions, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Mageia, openSUSE, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES). Versions for other platforms, including Mac OS X, iOS, and Android, are already under development, although the developers have not yet named a release date.

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