Apple introduces Remote Desktop 3

Apple Remote Desktop costs $299 for "10" Licenses.

Windows xp Home does NOT come with remote desktop.

Windows xp professional comes with a single license of remote desktop. I'm not sure what the difference in cost is between Home and professional.

This makes no sense. Why shut down an entire commerce site to add/modify one product.

There's more to the story.

Actually there is a VNC server built in Tiger. Go to the sharing preference pane and select Apple Remote Desktop for it to be launched.

VNC Server isn't built into Mac OS X 10.4. What is built-in is ARD 2.2 client software, which operates using some VNC technologies. This means that you can ues a VNC admin program to control any Mac OS X box that has the ARD 2.x client installed. However, the VNC compatibility only really allows for the desktop-to-desktop screensharing and does not let you use the many other capabilities that the ARD 2.x software provides.

There are some free VNC client/server packages out there that can give you more features than a VNC/ARD combo. Chicken of the VNC is a very good one. However, in my opinion, none of them are as good as the full ARD 2.x software suite.

What Apples has done for us tho is offered the ARD 2.x client for free, which allows us all to have a nice free, robust VNC-compatible client installed. It's part of the OS (installed with typical Tiger installation), so it's already everywhere. Admins just need now to pick which Admin tool is best for them to manage their workstations. I prefer the ARD 2.x Admin tools (it's the ARD Admin tool(s) that cost the money, not the client).

Thank you Damien for clearing that up.

How easy is it to enable and configure VNC in Mac OSX? Someone told me that VNC Server is built in so I would assume there is a contorl panel? Or would I have to use the CLI?

damn, received 2.2 yesterday, already installed it, i hope Apple sales is helpfull

These look like great new features. "Drag & Drop"... finally! Although I prefer ARD over Timbuktu, Timbuktu has had _that_ feature for an extremely long time.

My copy will likely be in today. Although 2.2 does work fine on my MacBook Pro, I'd like to get my hands on some of those new features (and a performance boost wouldn't hurt).

To our dear Stefan, and to anyone else who wants to know.

You can turn on the Remote Desktop in preferences on without this, and you can connect to it with any VNC client (I use Chicken of the VNC, strange name I know). That is the functionality you get with Windows* for free, well you don't since you have to by professional for this functionality which quite a few people who didn't pirate windows don't have.

This does more; most of which you probably don't want unless your an admin.

*(I admit though the RDPv5 is a lot nicer than VNC in some respects but that's not relevant here I feel)

No upgrade pricing?

Stefan - I'm not quite sure I understand you. Could you please post a third whiny handwringing post detailing how Remote Desktop is free in XP and that Apple is trying to screw you? It would help more if you completly didn't understand how the products compare.