HopToDesk for FreeBSD: A Real Client, Not a Workaround

If you run FreeBSD, you know how this usually goes. You look for remote desktop software, the download page lists Windows, macOS and Linux, and that is the end of it. What follows is the familiar workaround: set up VNC by hand, forward X over SSH, or accept that the machine is a terminal and nothing more.

HopToDesk runs on FreeBSD. It is on our download page next to every other platform, we build it ourselves on real FreeBSD machines, and it is the same application our Windows, macOS and Linux users run.

What you get

• Connect to a FreeBSD machine from Windows, macOS, Linux, Android or iOS. A FreeBSD machine can also connect out to any of those. The ID and password work the same way in both directions.
• Both architectures. There is a package for amd64 and a package for aarch64, so ARM boards and ARM virtual machines are covered as well as ordinary PCs and servers.
• The same encryption as everywhere else. Every session is protected end to end, including the post-quantum handshake we shipped this month.
• File transfer and in-session chat.
• The same free app. Nothing about FreeBSD is a paid extra or a trial.

New in this release: the connection window

Every HopToDesk host shows a small connection window during a session. It is where the person sitting at the machine sees who is connecting, accepts or refuses the request, chats with the technician, and ends the session if they want to.

On FreeBSD that window did not open. This release fixes it, so a FreeBSD machine now behaves like every other host:

• A connection request shows a prompt, with the choice to accept or refuse it.
• The chat panel works during the session, so the two people can talk without a second app.
• The person at the machine can end the session at any time, from the machine itself.
• File transfer runs through that window, the same way it does on Linux.

That last part matters more than it sounds. Control of your own machine should never depend on the other side being polite. Now it does not.

Who this is for

• FreeBSD desktop users who want to help someone, or get help, without explaining a tunnel over the phone.
• Mixed shops running FreeBSD workstations beside Windows and Mac machines, who would rather use one tool than three.
• People running FreeBSD on ARM hardware, where support is usually even thinner.
• Universities, hosting companies, network shops and ISPs, where FreeBSD is still ordinary.

Installing it

Download the package for your architecture from the download page, then install it as root:

pkg install ./hoptodesk-freebsd-amd64.pkg

Use the aarch64 package instead if you are on ARM. Start HopToDesk from your graphical session, and you get an ID and a password, exactly as on any other platform. Share them with the person connecting, and the session opens.

Why we bother

FreeBSD is not the biggest audience we have. It is also not a rounding error, and the people who run it tend to run it on purpose, often on machines that matter. Leaving them with a hand-built VNC server in 2026 is not a good answer.

The same reasoning put us on Windows XP, on Raspberry Pi and on ARM. A platform is worth supporting when real people are doing real work on it.

Download HopToDesk for FreeBSD at www.hoptodesk.com/download, free for personal and business use.