TurboVNC is a virtual X server ("X proxy") that can be used to securely, performantly, and seamlessly interact with X11 applications and window managers running on remote Linux and Unix hosts. TurboVNC originated in 2004 as a fork of TightVNC v1.3 with accelerated JPEG compression/decompression, but it has evolved into a kind of remote desktop "Swiss Army knife" with unique usability, authentication, and integration features designed around the needs of technical computing, visualization, and content creation applications. Sun Microsystems sold TurboVNC as part of its Sun Shared Visualization product from 2005-2009.

Some of the features that set TurboVNC apart from most open source remote desktop software:

• Seamless remote desktop session management
• Built-in SSH client with support for OpenSSH config files and password-less public key authentication (using ssh-agent or Pageant)
• Built-in TLS encryption
• One-time password authentication
• Direct integration with VirtualGL (for running compositing window managers with GPU acceleration)
• The ability to set global security/authentication policies for a particular host
• User access control lists (for sharing remote desktop sessions with specific users)
• Automatic remote desktop resizing based on the client's screen size
• Configurable and flexible full-screen and multi-screen support
  • Support for multi-screen remote desktops, the layout of which can be modified remotely
  • Automatic remote multi-screen reconfiguration based on the client's screen boundaries
  • Support for offset monitors and monitors with differing resolutions
  • Automatic selection of single-monitor or multi-monitor spanning based on the remote desktop resolution
• Fine-grained control of image quality and other compression parameters
• Automatic lossless refresh, which sends a mathematically or perceptually lossless copy of a remote application's display during periods of inactivity
• Seamless integration with noVNC (browser-based VNC viewer)
• Client-side keyboard grabbing (for transmitting special keystrokes, such as Alt-Tab, to the remote desktop)

TurboVNC is sustained solely through patronage and funded development. However, this often requires a delicate balancing act: keeping the project moving forward so it can remain relevant, remain responsive to the user community, and provide a timely return on investment for funded development sponsors, while also keeping the project moving forward in a way that doesn't require the maintainer to eat labor cost or borrow against expected future funding (which sometimes doesn't arrive) in order to finish a strategically important feature or release. Developing TurboVNC independently ensures that it can remain community-focused and free of any one organization’s agenda, but it also requires continuous funding, which has historically not been easy to secure.

All sponsorship money goes directly toward funding the labor necessary to maintain TurboVNC, support the user community, and implement bug fixes and strategically important features.