FreeRDP: A Remote Desktop Protocol Implementation

Yes, the stable release of FreeRDP 1.0 is finally here!

I have been waiting so long for this day, and I know a lot of people were eagerly waiting for it as well. Our previous stable release, 0.8.2, is more than a year old and lacks an incredible amount of features which can now be found in 1.0. In the meantime, we planned a 0.9 release but then had to cancel it. Instead, we focused on proceeding with a rewrite which took about 6 months of work. If last year was hell at certain points, I am more than ever proud of the strong community that we are, and have faith that we will continue to deliver the best open source RDP implementation around. FreeRDP 1.0 is only the beginning, there are many challenges ahead of us, such as RDP8 or exploring FreeRDP as a server. It is also important to note that FreeRDP 1.0 is our first release officially under the Apache license.

FreeRDP 1.0 can be downloaded here.

New Features:

• RemoteFX
• Both encoder and decoder
• SSE2 and NEON optimization
• NSCodec
• RemoteApp
• Working, minor glitches
• Multimedia Redirection
• ffmpeg support
• Network Level Authentication (NLA)
• NTLMv2
• Certificate validation
• FIPS-compliant RDP security
• new build system (cmake)
• added official logo and icon

New Architecture:

• libfreerdp-core
• core protocol
• highly portable
• both client and server
• libfreerdp-cache
• caching operations
• libfreerdp-codec
• bitmap decompression
• codec encoding/decoding
• libfreerdp-kbd
• keyboard mapping
• libfreerdp-channels
• virtual channel management
• client and server side support
• libfreerdp-gdi
• extensively unit tested
• portable software GDI implementation
• libfreerdp-rail
• RemoteApp library
• libfreerdp-utils
• shared utility library

FreeRDP Clients:

• client/X11 (xfreerdp)
• official client
• RemoteApp support
• X11 GDI implementation
• client/DirectFB (dfreerdp)
• DirectFB support
• software-based GDI (libfreerdp-gdi)
• client/Windows (wfreerdp)
• Native Win32 support

FreeRDP Servers (experimental):

• server/X11 (xfreerdp-server)
• RemoteFX-only
• no authentication
• highly experimental
• keyboard and mouse input supported

Virtual Channels:

• cliprdr (Clipboard Redirection)
• rail (RemoteApp)
• drdynvc (Dynamic Virtual Channels)
• audin (Audio Input Redirection)
• alsa support
• pulse support
• tsmf (Multimedia Redirection)
• alsa support
• pulse support
• ffmpeg support
• rdpdr (Device Redirection)
• disk (Disk Redirection)
• parallel (Parallel Port Redirection)
• serial (Serial Port Redirection)
• printer (Printer Redirection)
• CUPS support
• smartcard (Smartcard Redirection)
• rdpsnd (Sound Redirection)
• alsa support
• pulse support

FreeRDP community,

I have some exciting news for you, which you can easily guess from the title of this announcement. It is a common thing within the industry to use major revision numbers for major releases, and FreeRDP is no exception to that rule. In our case, 1.0 will be a rewrite of FreeRDP using a bottom-up approach, accepting only Apache contributions from day 1. This means that we are rewriting some of the most major FreeRDP components like libfreerdp-core, but it is a good thing: we’re taking this as an opportunity for making all the changes we wanted to do for a while, and using a much better design than the original.

Some of you will read this with one thing in mind: what about FreeRDP 0.9 which you announced a couple of months ago? Yes, this is right, and I know that many of you are eagerly waiting for a release. However, we took the decision not to release FreeRDP 0.9 in order to focus on FreeRDP 1.0 and get it released as soon as possible. We give ourselves an estimate of two months before we can get 1.0 ready. Preparing a release and then maintaining it takes time from our most talented developers, and we need them to be focused on FreeRDP 1.0 instead. Do not worry, 1.0 will be worth the wait, you can be sure of that.

There are some aspects of 1.0 that need to be unambiguous to everyone. First, it is a *rewrite*, meaning it is not a fork of FreeRDP itself, and it is not a fork of rdesktop. If the FreeRDP 0.x series were a fork of rdesktop, it won’t be the case of the FreeRDP 1.x series. License-wise, here is how you can make the distinction:

• FreeRDP 0.x series: GPLv2 (rdesktop fork)
• FreeRDP 1.x series: Apache (pure FreeRDP)

We are inviting everyone interested in helping the FreeRDP 1.0 effort to make themselves known. Work has already been started, we are literally working 24/7 on this. The FreeRDP 1.0 development repository can be found here, but it is not functional yet, even though we are unit testing everything to ensure it is correct as we progress: https://github.com/FreeRDP/FreeRDP

We would like to make this effort as open and transparent as possible, so interested contributors should use the mailing list instead of sending private emails, or alternatively make use of our IRC channel. Since the re-announcement of the IRC channel, people are often in there, including me and the other core developers. As a reminder, our IRC channel is #freerdp @ irc.freenode.net

We do need to apply some strict rules though. All FreeRDP 1.0 contributors will need to accept a contributor agreement in which they state that code they contribute is theirs, and that it is also properly licensed under the Apache license. In addition to this, we are also code reviewing contributions before they are added to the repository.

The FreeRDP 1.0 rewrite will be done under the governance of the Open Thin Client Alliance, who has helped us tremendously throughout the latest challenges we faced. The OTCA is based in Germany, and provided us with an excellent lawyer who reviewed and validated the strategy that was just described. If you are a company with interests in FreeRDP, you are invited to contact the OTCA in order to become a member, or just to get to know more about what it is. Without the support from the OTCA, I doubt we would have been able to get all the resources necessary to undertake such a rewrite.

To conclude, I would like to thank everyone for their well appreciated support. FreeRDP is not a one-man show, it is the result of a community effort, which makes us strong. Thanks to our developers, to the companies backing FreeRDP, and to our user base that keeps sending us words of encouragement.

FreeRDP wasn’t accepted for Google Summer of Code 2011, even though we really wanted to do it. Thinstuff, one of the FreeRDP sponsors, decided that it would be great to organize a similar event: Thinstuff Summer of Code 2011.

Unlike GSoC, TSoC is open to everyone, not just students. We have a lot of features that need to be implemented, and money ready to be put on them. This event aims at connecting companies interested in sponsoring FreeRDP development with students or consultants interested in getting paid to work on FreeRDP. Even though this event is officially organized by Thinstuff, other companies are welcome to become sponsors as well.

For more information about the tasks that are waiting to be sponsored, see our Thinstuff Summer of Code 2011 wiki page.

Companies interested in sponsoring FreeRDP development can add their own tasks there along with contact information.

We wish everyone good luck, and hope that you will enjoy Thinstuff Summer of Code 2011

Unfortunately for us, I have to carry some bad news: FreeRDP wasn’t selected for Google Summer of Code 2011. It is sad, since I would have really liked to do it, but there is not much I can do about it. I do not fully understand why we weren’t approved, but maybe next year we’ll get lucky.

Effective immediately, we are migrating our git hosting from sourceforge.net to github. The link to the git repository has been changed, and developers should migrate as soon as possible. In a few days, the sourceforge.net git hosting will be disabled to avoid any confusion.

The git wiki page has been updated with instructions on how to smoothly migrate to github.