No subject

cell phone), I can ssh into work with one ssh session, connect to my
desktop, connect to a specific screen session and access whatever I
want instantly.  Not only that, it's fast! And if I set up my ssh port
redirection correctly, I can get to internal web sites easily enough
as well.

I guess I find that easier than using a VPN because the VPN wouldn't
necessarilly help me in any way.  If I had a laptop which had vpn
access, I'd still have to ssh to my desktop to access the stuff I want
to deal with.  The only difference would be that with a VPN, I could
perhaps NFS mount my home directory, but doing that seldom buys me
much, and too often would be too slow to make worth doing compared to
ssh'ing to a host which is already NFS mounting it locally..  Perhaps
with a laptop while I was in the office, but I too seldom actually use
a laptop in the office.  I'm either in the lab (dis|re)-assembling
systems, in a meeting where my cell phone is good enough for web
surfing, or at my desk, and therefore not in need of a laptop.

But that's me.  Everyone has a different way of working, different
requirements, and different definitions of what constitutes as "easy"
:)

>>  or vnc.
>
> Slow, poor cursor handling.  Can't drag and drop from local widgets.

Agreed, however, when you need to maintain graphical state on a remote
machine, VNC is pretty slick.  In the past, I've done things like:

 - used VNC to run an X session on a system which had no
   monitor/keyboard connected to it.

 - run my own .xsession inside VNC in order to "move around" to
   different systems in the building, but maintain connection with my
   desktop (which had my e-mail client and web browser running on it
   at the time)

These days there's little I need to do that requires maintaining
graphical state, almost everything is running in an xterm, and with
things like google and/or del.icio.us, my bookmarks are obsolete.

I haven't used, or even seen a need for using VNC in quite some time,
it was just thrown out as a possible solution for some.

Of course, IMO, there's little need for VPNs these days if you set
your environment up correctly.  Judicious use of SSL, Kerberos, AFS,
SSH, and screen should be able to provide you with just about
everything you need.  Leave out screen and ssh for non-technical,
business-type, windows-bound prisoners, since they usually don't have
a need for either :)

-- 

Seeya,
Paul