Noctiluca is a remote desktop server/client for macOS, built on Sirius β our custom protocol over QUIC. β‘ HW-accelerated H.265/H.264 via VideoToolbox π₯οΈ Multi-display with detachable windows π SSH key authentication π Free cross-platform clients (macOS, iOS, Windows, Linux) π¨ Experimental HDR streaming Sirius protocol spec is open source. Client reference library (libsirius) coming this summer. https://github.com/team-unstablers/SiriusProtocol
There's a Japanese internet slang "θͺ°εΎ" (daretoku) β roughly meaning "who even benefits from this?" And the classic comeback is "δΏΊεΎγ οΌ" (oretoku da!) β "I do!" That's exactly how this app started. I built Noctiluca because I needed it.
I've been a Linux desktop user for nearly 15 years, mostly on KDE Plasma. After starting a small company, iOS development became a bigger part of my work, so I reluctantly bought a Mac β and reluctantly made it my main machine.
I tried everything to stay on Linux. VNC? Painfully slow on non-Mac clients. Chrome Remote Desktop? Better than VNC, but still laggy β and being browser-based, it can't grab system keys. xrdp? I actually built a predecessor to Noctiluca called 'ιΊ ~Ulalaca~' (https://github.com/team-unstable...), but gave up due to the sheer complexity of the RDP specification.
I wanted to build something like RDP β but for Mac.
Building this app is also my journey back to Linux. My ultimate goal: plug my iPhone into my Linux laptop, have it recognized by a Mac in another room, and use Noctiluca's 'AppStream' to run just Xcode β as if it were a native Linux app.
There's also a deeply personal motivation behind this app and the Sirius protocol. Someone very dear to me, who is no longer with us, first taught me programming through Perl. He loved Linux and open-source software. When the time is right, I plan to open-source the Qt-based Linux/Windows Noctiluca Navigator and libsirius. I want to see my software officially packaged in Debian/Ubuntu distributions β and show that to him, wherever he is.
We want the Sirius protocol to be a universal, "for everyone" protocol β not tied to any single piece of software, covering as many use cases as possible.
For example, here's a demo of connecting to an scrcpy instance β modified to speak the Sirius protocol via libsirius β using Noctiluca Navigator to control an Android device.
Hey Gyuhwan, 15 years on Linux and then being forced onto a Mac for iOS dev sounds painful. Was there a specific day where you tried VNC or Chrome Remote Desktop, hit the lag or the missing system keys issue again, and just thought okay I need to build something better myself?
Gyuhwan Park
There's a Japanese internet slang "θͺ°εΎ" (daretoku) β roughly meaning "who even benefits from this?" And the classic comeback is "δΏΊεΎγ οΌ" (oretoku da!) β "I do!" That's exactly how this app started. I built Noctiluca because I needed it.
I've been a Linux desktop user for nearly 15 years, mostly on KDE Plasma. After starting a small company, iOS development became a bigger part of my work, so I reluctantly bought a Mac β and reluctantly made it my main machine.
I tried everything to stay on Linux. VNC? Painfully slow on non-Mac clients. Chrome Remote Desktop? Better than VNC, but still laggy β and being browser-based, it can't grab system keys. xrdp? I actually built a predecessor to Noctiluca called 'ιΊ ~Ulalaca~' (https://github.com/team-unstable...), but gave up due to the sheer complexity of the RDP specification.
I wanted to build something like RDP β but for Mac.
Building this app is also my journey back to Linux. My ultimate goal: plug my iPhone into my Linux laptop, have it recognized by a Mac in another room, and use Noctiluca's 'AppStream' to run just Xcode β as if it were a native Linux app.
There's also a deeply personal motivation behind this app and the Sirius protocol. Someone very dear to me, who is no longer with us, first taught me programming through Perl. He loved Linux and open-source software. When the time is right, I plan to open-source the Qt-based Linux/Windows Noctiluca Navigator and libsirius. I want to see my software officially packaged in Debian/Ubuntu distributions β and show that to him, wherever he is.
Thank you.