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