Right-clicking the Linux desktop shows the whole menu again after the size changes.
Fixes on Linux
After Darpan switches the desktop between 100 % and 200 %, Ubuntu’s desktop icons start again with the new size, so their right-click menu is no longer cut off.
Fit now works on laptops whose Intel graphics drive the screen, chosen automatically, and resolution changes and restarts are tidier.
Fit on hybrid laptops
This window now works when the Linux computer’s Intel graphics drive its screen, as on a laptop in hybrid mode. Darpan picks the way by itself: NVIDIA’s when NVIDIA drives the screen, the display’s own scaling otherwise. While fitted, the laptop’s own screen shows the desktop stretched; your Mac sees it exactly.
Fixes on Linux
Resolution changes understand monitors with custom-named modes, and fall back safely when a mode is refused.
Stopping or updating Darpan no longer leaves stray processes behind.
Fit your window at 125, 150 or 175 %, give each computer its own settings, and change resolutions without upsetting the Linux desktop.
Fit, in between
125 %, 150 % and 175 % join 100 % and 200 % in This window. The Linux desktop draws at 200 %, and the Linux computer’s GPU scales it to exactly your window, so text stays sharp at every size.
On the Mac
Settings per computer: Quality, Frame rate, Scaling, Sound, the GPU option, and the keyboard and scrolling choices belong to each computer. With several open, changing one window leaves the others as they are.
Fixes on Linux
Switching between 100 % and 200 % in the same window now takes effect everywhere. Before, the desktop’s menus could come out cut off.
A resolution change picks the exact mode GNOME uses. On a laptop panel with two nearly identical modes, GNOME could lose track of the screen, and the next click on the top bar logged you out.
A desktop the size of your window, and several computers at once
The Linux desktop takes the exact size of your Mac's window, the quality you pick applies from the first frame, and the Mac connects to several computers at once.
Sharper video
This window: the Linux desktop becomes exactly the size of the Mac's window, one pixel for one pixel, at 100 % or 200 %. It follows when you resize the window or go full screen. On Linux computers with an NVIDIA graphics card and one monitor.
The quality you pick applies from the first frame, instead of starting lower and catching up.
Full colour no longer garbles the picture at some widths, such as 1680 or 1440 pixels.
When the GPU's memory frees up, after a training run for example, the faster encoder and full colour come back by themselves.
On the Mac
Several computers at once: each Linux computer opens in its own window, and the list of computers stays open. Sound follows the window in front.
Rename your computers, and give each one an emoji.
The display panel shows what's really in effect.
The window takes the right shape at once when the Linux computer brings back your last resolution.
Sleep ends the session cleanly, and only a real wake reconnects.
A failed update check tries again an hour later.
On Linux
A short visit no longer rearranges your windows: the resolution goes back 10 seconds after the last viewer leaves, so a quick reconnect finds everything as it was.
The Linux window shows what each device is getting: its size, full colour, the bitrate, or paused.
Text stays crisp after every change, and both apps now walk you through your first connection.
Sharper video
Text is sharper after every change. The Linux computer's GPU now spots unchanged frames itself, so the encoder can use its better two-pass mode. A still screen still costs nothing, even while the pointer moves.
Full colour at Higher Quality and Max in the Mac app, on Macs that decode it in hardware: coloured text such as code stays crisp.
The bitrate recovers after a Wi-Fi hiccup instead of staying low.
New in the display panel: Use more of the Linux computer's GPU, for sharper fast scrolling.
Easier to start
A welcome on both sides. On Linux, click Get started, sign in, and Darpan shows the password to connect with.
The Mac's disk image shows how to open Darpan the first time.
The toolbar introduces itself on your first connection.
The Linux window shows Darpan's version.
A new icon: white lotus petals with a touch of pink.
Log in after a restart from your Mac, with a video encoder that needs a sixth of the GPU memory.
The login screen after a restart
Turn on Show the login screen in the Linux window once. After a restart you log in from your Mac or a browser, with nobody at the Linux computer.
40 MB of GPU memory instead of 250
The video encoder now runs through Vulkan Video on the same NVIDIA hardware, at the same speed and quality. NVENC through CUDA remains the fallback.
Also new
Update from the Linux window: when a new Darpan is out, the window offers it with one click. On the Mac, a dialog offers Install & Relaunch, and updates no longer get stuck.
Simpler quality choices:Faster Speed, Balanced (the default), Higher Quality and Max, on the Mac and in the browser.
Resolution remembered: the Linux computer switches back to the resolution each device picked last.
Files: clicks in the Mac's Files window always select, with the Finder's own icons. In the browser, a folder on its way can be cancelled.
Clear messages: the Linux window says when a driver update needs a restart to use the GPU, and the Mac says when the remote computer is still starting up.
Send and receive files in both directions, and a Mac app that stops asking about its sign-in after updates.
The Files window
Two panes, this Mac and the Linux computer. Select files or folders and Send or Receive them, or drag between the panes. A transfer list shows progress, and Darpan asks before anything would be replaced (Keep both, Replace, Skip). Files dropped on the window still land on the Linux desktop.
Also new
A stable signature on the Mac app: macOS stops asking about the saved sign-in after each update.
Browser: received folders keep their structure in Chrome and Edge.
Polish: the drop highlight and transfer notices now use the toolbar's look.
Linux: the capture helper exits cleanly when the desktop session ends.
The Linux computer no longer sends frames that would show you nothing new.
When something animates anywhere on a GNOME desktop, the whole screen is redrawn 60 times a second, even when nothing visible changes. Darpan now drops those frames: a static screen goes from about 52 frames a second to none, and a blinking cursor to about 9.
There's no added latency, and it saves decoding work and battery on the Mac, plus network traffic.
Darpan is now free and open source, with files in the browser, dictation, a list of your computers, and updates that install themselves.
Your computers: the Mac app lists the Linux computers on your tailnet that run Darpan. One click connects.
Files: files dropped on the window land on the Linux desktop. In the browser, the Files window browses the Linux computer, sends files and folders into any folder, and receives them.
Dictation: Wispr Flow and other dictation apps paste straight into Linux, and nothing stays held down afterwards.
Toolbar: a floating capsule at the upper right, movable by its grip. The clipboard button is gone, since ⌘C and ⌘V sync both ways.
Updates: Linux through the system's updater, the Mac through a signed manifest checked once a day.
Hear the Linux computer on your Mac, and use the Mac's shortcuts in Linux terminals.
Sound: whatever plays on the Linux computer now plays on your Mac, or in the browser. The speaker button in the toolbar mutes it. It costs the Linux computer about 0.25 % of one CPU core while something plays, and nothing while it's silent.
⌘ in Linux terminals: ⌘C copies, ⌘V pastes and ⌘T opens a tab, as in the Mac's Terminal, while ⌃C still interrupts. Before, ⌘C in a terminal interrupted the running program.
More robust: sound recovers by itself when the Linux sound server restarts, and sign-in is hardened against idle connection floods.
Darpan