I have been looking for easy to use remote access tools for Linux, that are independent of a server, and allows for desktop control.  

Keep in mind that given the variety of troubleshooting or training scenarios I find myself in, that there are so many factors beyond my control, such as firewalls, ISP's, routers, locked down environments etc, I desperately needed some tools, as verbally reading out commands or typing them into Skype (error prone) was time consuming.

I was following a discussion on the LinkedIn Ubuntu Users group about remote access tools, and tried some of the options suggested.

After trying DimDim, which is opensource, but does not support Linux desktop sharing, NX remotely to South Africa, and WakeOnLan for SSH access, I was running out of options.

I tested Webex with success and only encountered a proxy issue in one location.  The desktop sharing works Linux to Linux perfectly

A friend suggested last week, that I revisit TeamViewer, as they had just released a beta for LInux.  I tested on 2 machines running Ubuntu 9.10 (one with 32 bit, the other 64 bit) and it was very smooth.  i upgraded OpenOffice and installed updates etc without any issues.

The only drawback in my situation is that some clients or partners are unable to install 3rd party software and TeamViewer does require a download.

Webex requires a java plugin to be installed for your web browser, but is web based.

I will continue to work with the two options over the coming weeks, but I will be suggesting to all of my project leads to test TeamViewer in order to manage their Ubuntu desktops remotely.  As most of our projects are not managed by network administrators, but by ordinary users who are migrating to Linux, easy to use tools and interfaces are key to the success.

Here is to another tool to make Linux adoption easier!!