Made for Linux
Mote has been designed and tested for full compatibility with GNOME Remote Desktop (both Desktop Sharing and Remote Login), xrdp and KRdp.
Mote 1.2 What's new →
A GNOME-native RDP client
Available for 64-bit Intel/AMD and ARM as a Flatpak, AppImage or native DEB/RPM package.
- Open source · AGPLv3
- Zero telemetry
- Flatpak, AppImage, DEB/RPM
RDP geared for Linux
Mote is designed to make remote desktop access simple and fast on the Linux desktop
Dynamic resizing
Supported sessions automatically adjust the remote resolution to fit the window size. HiDPI and fractional scaling support are built-in for sharp rendering at any resolution.
H.264 video
Smooth video through the graphics pipeline decoded by FFmpeg, OpenH264 or optionally Cisco's OpenH264 codec. Fall back to RemoteFX when H.264 is unavailable. A helper is included to aid installing the correct codec if your system lacks it.
Full clipboard sharing support
Copy/paste text, rich text, images and files between the remote and local machine with ease.
SSH tunnels and RD Gateway
Connect to machines behind a firewall using SSH or through an RD Gateway.
Wake-on-LAN and reconnecting
Supports waking a sleeping machine before connecting. Built-in fault-tolerance for unstable network connections.
Multi-monitor support
Access all your screens on a remote machine that has more than one monitor
Sound, microphone and folder sharing
Share audio devices and folders between the local and remote machines with ease
Import RDP connections
Import your existing .rdp files directly into Mote or import from an existing Remmina install.
Uncompromising privacy
Mote connects directly to your machines with no relay in between or telemetry collected.
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Zero telemetry
No analytics, no tracking and no usage data. The app makes no connection you didn't ask for.
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Passwords in the keyring
Passwords are kept security in your desktop's keyring
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Identities checked
A machine's certificate, an SSH host key or a gateway's certificate is shown before the first connection to ensure you're connecting securely.
0accounts, trackers and telemetry pings
Tested against Linux RDP servers
We built Mote to work flawlessly with Linux RDP servers such as GNOME Remote Desktop (Desktop Sharing and Remote Login), xrdp and KRdp. Mote has not been tested against a Windows machine.
GNOME Remote Desktop
GNOME 46 or later. Both Desktop Sharing and Remote Login are fully supported. GNOME Remote Desktop sends H.264 when a compatible graphics card is present on the remote machine.
xrdp
Version 0.10 or later, with and without the graphics pipeline. PulseAudio and PipeWire sound modules fully compatible. xrdp sends H.264 from version 0.10.2.
KRdp
KDE Plasma 6's own server encodes H.264 with FFmpeg.
Windows
At present, Mote has not been tried against any Windows client. If you use it with a Windows machine, tell us how it went.
Free and open source
Mote is released under the GNU AGPLv3. The code, the roadmap it was built from and every release are on GitHub.
Built with AI, shipped by a human
Mote is built by a human maintainer who uses generative AI as a development tool. The maintainer decides what gets built, reviews the results, tests every release and signs off on everything that ships. The app icon was made by Jason M. The app itself contains no AI and makes no requests to AI services. Read the AI notice →
Bug reports and pull requests are welcome whether or not AI tools were involved. Everything merged is reviewed by a human first.
Install Mote
Available as a Flatpak, AppImage and DEB/RPM packages, for 64-bit Intel/AMD and ARM.
What you'll need
- 64-bit Linux, Intel/AMD or ARM.
- A Secret Service keyring (GNOME Keyring or KWallet)
- For Flatpak installs: Flatpak, with Flathub enabled. Mote runs on the shared GNOME runtime from Flathub so installing Mote pulls that runtime as well.
Recommended: working GPU drivers (OpenGL / Mesa) and a GNOME-style desktop. Package installs decode H.264 with the system's FFmpeg or OpenH264; without either, Settings > Video downloads Cisco's OpenH264.
What's new
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1.2.0
New features:
- Open a connection fullscreen
- Open a connection in a new window
- Window defaults for new connections in Settings
- Option to hide account avatars in the sidebar
- Option to hide the large account avatar on the connection page
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1.1.0
New features:
- Advice on making GNOME Desktop Sharing resize with the window
- Option to turn off the Desktop Sharing size notice
- Flatpak shares connections and settings with the other installs
- Flatpak shares saved passwords with the other installs
- Notice that the server can read the clipboard on a connection's first session
- Copied files shared only when the connection allows it
- Clipboard sharing off by default for new connections
Fixes:
- Passwords wiped from memory once used
- Startup warning when session logging can record passwords
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1.0.0
New features:
- GNOME Remote Desktop support for Desktop Sharing and Remote Login
- xrdp and KRdp support
- Fractional scaling supported
- Automatic window resizing
- H.264 decoding through FFmpeg or OpenH264
- H.264 decoder choice in Settings
- Advice on what to install when a server sends no H.264
- Two-way clipboard for text and rich text
- Two-way clipboard for images and files
- Remote desktop sound played on this computer
- Microphone sent to the remote desktop
- Shared folder for the remote desktop
- SSH tunnels
- RD Gateway support
- Wake-on-LAN
- Automatic reconnection when the network drops
- Fullscreen on one monitor or on all of them
- Desktop shortcuts held back while a session has focus
- Keyboard returned to this computer when the pointer leaves the session
- Right Ctrl on its own releases the keyboard and shows the header
- Import from .rdp files and Remmina
- Export to .rdp files
- Connection groups in the sidebar
- Sorting and custom ordering in the sidebar
- Robot avatars for connections
- Flatpak and AppImage builds
- RPM and Debian packages
- Builds for x86_64 and ARM64
Built on
Mote relies on the hard work from these projects.
- IronRDP Devolutions' Rust-based RDP protocol engine
- GTK and libadwaita The toolkit and GNOME's design
- Relm4 The way the interface is put together
- russh SSH tunnels
- FFmpeg and OpenH264 H.264 decoding
- DiceBear Pixelbot: the cute robots avatars
Questions or bugs?
Open an issue on GitHub. Please search the existing ones first, then include your Mote version, the remote server and its distribution, your desktop distro and the steps that lead to the problem.