One of features in Windows that I could not live with out is the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). It is one of the best tools out there for remote viewing of your desktop. I use it at work to keep track of my Windows servers as well as log in to my desktop at home to do programming or check personal e-mail. Remote Desktop is fast, flexible, and doesn't have the problem of having to do a full screen refresh to see what has changed on your desktop. So in a sense it is smart because it only updates the part of the screen that have refreshed. You don't even loose screen refresh performance when you login to a machine through RDP and then launch another instance of RDP to remote in to another machine from your already remote machine, I find that very impressive.
I have always been using VNC to monitor my Linux servers from my Windows desktop, I have also always wished there was a way login to my Linux servers the way I login to my Windows servers. Today I found the answer and it is 2X Terminal Server. You can read more about this at the digg link below.