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Are there (preferably free) alternatives to VNC on Linux?

Is there different remote desktop technologies for Linux or is it all based around VNC?

EDIT: Thanks symcbean for your comment, good point. I find the network performance of RDP much faster than VNC. I am currently using tightVNC, but I do not want to compromise the quality for speed. Using RDP I find that it is just like being infront of the computer. I'm using VNC over an internet connection to a virtual dedicated server, on a broadband connection (admittedly not the fasted broadband in the world - but fast enough) - so in theory there isn't really any serious bottle necks.

-thanks Alex.

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There are answers below - but it might help to know what you don't like about VNC – symcbean Jan 27 '11 at 14:17
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If you have a reasonable fast link, X11 is the native remote technology on Linux and every other Unix-type system, as the X11 system was designed from the ground up to work over the network. These days, it's mostly used with ssh port forwarding (like ssh yourname@example.com -X), and NX, mentioned in the answer by alvosu, "merely" improves on the compression, making it accessible over slow links with a high latency.

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cool thanks svenw – Alex Key Jan 31 '11 at 19:51
X11 would be much more secure also, using SSHD, since VNC and xrdp may be (I believe) unencrypted unless you buy a 3rd party version of those protocols like "Real-VNC" , etc. – djangofan May 3 at 22:34
Just like you can tunnel X11 over SSH, you can also tunnel VNC over SSH (or SSL/TLS; look at stunnel) ;) – reiniero May 6 at 2:03
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NX technology is a computer program that handles remote X Window System connections, and attempts to greatly improve on the performance of the native X display protocol to the point that it can be usable over a slow link such as a dial-up modem. FreeNX - Free Software (GPL) Implementation of the NX Server.

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Cool thanks alvosu – Alex Key Jan 27 '11 at 11:03
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Depends why you need it. xrdp is a wrapper around vnc but it solves most of the difficulties I have with vnc on Linux. http://xrdp.sourceforge.net/

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interesting I haven't heard of that before - thanks. – Alex Key Jan 31 '11 at 19:50
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