There are 3 things you can do.

1. Turn on SSH and access the computer from the command line. This is my preference because I'm a command line kind of guy.
2. Use something like Remote Desktop. Though, you would have to pay.
3. Use a VNC client. They have them for all platforms. You can get JollysFastVNC at http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/networking_s...

JollysFastVNC is a *Mac* VNC client. That won't allow you to access a Mac's desktop from a Linux machine -- because it only runs on Macs. Other VNC clients that *do* run on Linux will work. However, I am not satisfied with how well any of the ones I have tried have worked (I've used RealVNC and TightVNC, and they both hang after far-too-brief periods of inactivity, forcing me to restart the client -- which is exceedingly frustrating).

If anyone has had better luck with a different VNC client going from Linux to a Mac (mine's a Mac mini running Leopard), I'm all ears.

on your OSX version:

open system preferences, look at "Sharing".

enable Remote Desktop

open the "access privileges" and check "vnc users may control screen" and give a password.

Cool! Can I assume I would be able to use a Win box in the same manner? The folks at the Apple Store thought I was talking heresy from goin Win to my home Mac. Linux to Mac would be a venial sin perhaps. I know they'd be so happy to sell me a second Mac and I'd be all too happy to oblige, but I still haven't figured out how to manage the exchange rate for the cattle on a thousand hills to US currency :-)

Would assume, though I've never tested it, that a Win VNC client could access it.

Never saw the reason to try it, myself, because multi-GB thumb drives are cheap. I just keep the files on it, and pop it in to whatever machine I'm working on at the time. (Between them, my 4gb thumb drive and my iPod carry everything I need.)

Is VNC the only option for a linux -> Mac remote graphical login?
it's such a shame you can't do an X11 desktop connection to the mac.

...but if VNC is available, why would you *want* to forward X11? The VNC protocol is way more efficient than the X11 protocol.

Still, if that's what you want to do, start here:

http://developer.apple.com/Darwin/runningX11.html

...I probably should note that, at heart, OSX is Unix, simply with a better UI than any Unix has ever managed to deliver. Anything you can do on a Unix box you can do on OSX -- sometimes straight out of the box, sometimes you have to tweak a few things. Apple keeps control of the UI, but the underpinnings are completely Open Source. (You should have heard the Samba project when Apple did their first check-in. They were all set to have to pry the changes out of Apple with crowbars, wondered if they would get them at all, and Apple comes up and drops off a few meg of source code changes, mainly improvements in performance. It was an effort keeping up with integrating the changes for a while, but like all projects, the pace slowed as improvements came harder.) I won't say Apple has been perfect, but all in all they've been a pretty good OS citizen.

If there's something specific you're trying to do, and don't readily see how, wander around the Apple site; they're likely to have a pointer to where to start, generally around the developer sections of the site (yes, Apple classes power users as developers). If that fails, your next stop should be the Darwin project. Some details of that are here: http://developer.apple.com/opensource/ while other details can be found all over the net, probably starting with http://www.darwinports.com/

It's not an accident that Mac laptops are the machine of choice at a lot of Unix sysadmin events. All the power you're used to commanding, wrapped in beauty with a friendly interface. I can get down and dirty with shell scripting and perl, then pop over and pull the results into a decent presentation package for a talk with the suits. Best of both worlds. (I went the other way, recently, doing a presentation on HTML5 via Impress -- frankly, it's not as good as Keynote, and I struggled a bit with it, but it was part of a larger point I was trying to make, and in the end, it worked out fine.)

Yes I sound like a commercial. So what? I finally find a product I'm reasonably satisfied with, and I *shouldn't* talk about it?

Hi everybody, I show here my case as I've been struggling for a while looking for the best remote desktop software but still I haven't understood much about that. I've been using Logmein for a while to access my Lab computer (windows machine) from my Mac os X laptop and viceversa, without any problem. Easy, intuitive, rather fast, like sitting in front of your lab pc from your couch. Now in my new lab I have a Debian and a machine and I'd like to be able to the same as before. I have looked at several software for doing this in a similar way to what logmein does for windows machines, but no one fully convinced me. Can you guys help me to figure out the best solution to my need? i'd greatly appreciate that.

Cheers,

Andri

I would look into VNC. It is natively built into Macs (called desktop sharing, I think). VNC exists for PCs and Linux as well.

I did, but it seems rather slow. how about NoMachine?

There is no Remote Desktop in Snow Leopard it is called Screen Sharing. VNC server is actually integrated with Leopard so no need to buy enterprize VNC server for Mac. You have to enable it from Sharing. Then go to Computer Settings and enable "VNC viewers may control screen with password", and specify the password. Click Ok. However like others mentioned real VNC client will hang after some period of inactivity and then unable to re-connect back. I use real VNC Viewer Free Edition 4.1.3 (only client part of the package). And I think the bug is in VNC client because it will only re-connect after you reset connection options :-(

Its not hard to place VNC on a MAC
http://www.wikihow.com/Setup-VNC-on-Mac-OS-X

I use a macbook pro with Mac OS X 10.6.2. I wanted to connect the macbook pro from Ubuntu. I followed some of the suggestion of turning on VNC.

System Preferences > Sharing > Remote Management
As ARY pointed out above, go to Computer Settings and enable "VNC viewers may control screen with password", and specify the password.

Install and execute xtightvncviewer. In the first dialog, enter the IP address of macbook. You can find it from the "Remote Management." Then, enter the password you entered in Remote management.

I do not know why my computer works with xtightvncviewer only. Other nice VNC clients did not work.

Now, I can use my macbook pro from my Ubuntu. I might have to cancel an order of Apple VGA Adapter for my macbook pro because I can see macbook screen without it thanks to VNC.