Newbie here..........1st post.

I recently installed Ubuntu server 20.04 on an old laptop on my home network. It appears to run very well and I am able to use SSH on my Windows 11 desktop to connect to the server, and am in the process of learning Linux commands and the CLI.

As a next step, I would like to install a Linux distro on a different laptop, and then to connect to that laptop so that my Windows 11 computer will assume control. I need advice about how to connect the 2 computers over my home network.

I have a few requirements:
1 My version of Windows 1 is the HOME version, so there is NO remote desktop available
2 My laptop is old, a dual core Intel CPU with 4 GB RAM, so I must use a distro with that in mind
3 If third party software is required, for either the Linux or the Windows 11 computers, then that software
must be totally free

Many years ago I had used a program called UltraVNC to connect 2 Windows computers, and that remote desktop
system worked very well......not sure if that program still exists, or if it would work on a Linux computer.

Looking for some advice and suggestions to devise a plan about how to proceed. All suggestions welcome. Thank you.

Windows Home editions include a Remote Desktop client. They lack the ability to act as Remote Desktop servers. For what you describe, the client is sufficient. You will need a server on the laptop. I have successfully used xrdp for this. Distro packages are likely available. I suggest using a light window manager, as a full blown desktop environment can be slow to load.

allend,

I tried to search for a Remote Desktop Client on my Windows 11 Home version, but not able to find it. Will you please give directions to access the client?
Also, I assume that xrdp is on the Linux laptop........is that correct?

You can use the task bar search tool to search for:

Remote Desktop Connection

You may have to install it from the Microsoft app store.

#1 You might also consider using VNC instead of RDP. Even Microsoft is avoiding RDP these days.

#2 BE aware that for both VNC and RDP that windows client editions and Linux treat remote sessions differently. Linux is multi-user at its core, while Windows clients are a single user design with multi-user layers. Your session on a Linux host is usually a NEW session in ADDITION to the one seen at the host monitor. Windows hosts provide you a remote of the SAME session. (There are ways to adjust this behavior, but for the simple case this is the default.)

#3 Neither RDP nor VNC are network secure in nature. IF you ever need to secure them you will need to run the connection over ssh for an SSL tunnel to encrypt the traffic, or run the connection through a VPN. If the traffic is isolated to your local and secured network you can ignore security as an issue.

#4 where RDP is available and acceptable it performs better. I do like VNC and it is the more general and configurable option, but it does not provide the same performance.