14 DAY TRIAL // RealVNC Ltd. today announced the release of VNC 5.2.0 Build 18477 for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux computers. The release notes mention a truckload of tweaks and improvements, as well as new features, including newly-supported languages.
VNC is a free remote control application for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux that allows you to view and interact with a computer desktop across the world using the power of the Internet.
VNC is now available in French, German, and Spanish and the appropriate language for the desktop of each user will be selected automatically. Admins can change this using the Locale VNC parameter, if required.
According to the release notes, VNC parameters that parse environment variables resolve syntax issues, and the VNC Viewer chat interface no longer prevents a user account password from being entered in some circumstances.
Some UNIX-specific changes are mentioned. According to the developers, “VNC Server in Service Mode (vncserver-x11-serviced) and the VNC Server in Virtual Mode daemon (vncserver-virtuald) can now be started using systemctl on Linux distributions that support systemd, such as the latest Fedora.”
PAM session modules are now supported by VNC Server, while “session actions in pam_umask.so, pam_limits.so, pam_env.so, and pam_unix.so are automatically referenced in /etc/pam.d/vncserver (or equivalent file),” according to the changelog.
Chat has been inserted into the vncserverui program, meaning it’s no longer a standalone app. Admins looking to configure chat using policy can do so by editing the vncserverui- policy template file.
A fix for Linux users is also mentioned: “VNC hosted on a network share no longer relies on the cacerts.pem file.”
Moving on to the OS X client, RealVNC has blessed VNC Server with the ability to lock the computer or start the screensaver when the last VNC Viewer user disconnects when in Service Mode. This feature is not available on Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger), according to the company.
Other changes are listed as follows: “The VNC Chat.app no longer reads from the /Library/Preferences/com.realvnc.vncchat.plist file. To configure chat using policy, edit the vncserverui- policy template file [...] VNC Viewer no longer prevents media keys such as volume or brightness from affecting the client computer.”
Existing VNC users will download and install the latest version completely free of charge, while newcomers will have to pay a license fee of $30.00 (€22.05). A 30-day trial is available to those who want to try before they buy. As usual, the download links for each supported platform can be found below.
Download VNC 5.2.0 for Mac OS X