TigerVNC, a high-speed remote display system that allows users to view and interact with remote computers, has just released version 1.16.
The most notable addition is the introduction of w0vncserver, a new server designed specifically for sharing Wayland desktops, providing a native approach to exposing Wayland sessions over VNC, aligning TigerVNC more closely with the current Linux desktop trend.
The native viewer has also received improvements, with the long-standing F8 menu replaced by a new, more flexible keyboard shortcut system. In addition, system keys can now be sent even when the viewer is running in windowed mode, removing a common limitation during remote administration tasks.
Platform-specific input handling has also been refined. On Windows, the native viewer now intercepts and forwards nearly all system keys, except for Ctrl+Alt+Delete, which remains impossible to capture by design.
On macOS, TigerVNC 1.16 switches to a different method for intercepting system keys, a change that requires explicit user approval under Apple’s security model.
Apart from that, the native viewer is now more responsive when resizing remote sessions, reducing lag and visual artifacts during window adjustments. The server selection field has also been improved, adding searchable history to make reconnecting to frequently used systems faster and more convenient.
Meanwhile, the Java viewer gains more fine-grained scaling controls, offering greater flexibility on high-resolution and mixed-DPI displays.
Finally, on the packaging side, TigerVNC 1.16 adds support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, although the release notes clarify that libvnc.so is not included in those packages. At the same time, support for Ubuntu 20.04 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 has been dropped.
For more information, see the changelog. Binaries are available on SourceForge for those eager to explore the new features.
