A few useful tools for application deployment

WinSCP (Windows Secure CoPy) is a free and open-source SFTP, SCP and FTP client for Microsoft Windows. Its main function is secure file transfer between a local and a remote computer. Beyond this, WinSCP offers basic file manager and file synchronization functionality. For secure transfers, it uses Secure Shell (SSH) and supports the SCP protocol in addition to SFTP.

Development of WinSCP started around March 2000 and continues. Originally it was hosted by the University of Economics in Prague, where its author worked at the time. Since July 16, 2003, it is licensed under the GNU GPL and hosted on SourceForge.net.

WinSCP is based on the implementation of the SSH protocol from PuTTY and FTP protocol from FileZilla. It is also available as a plugin for Altap Salamander file manager, and there’s third-party project for plugin to FAR file manager.

PuTTY is a terminal emulator application which can act as a client for the SSH, Telnet, rlogin, and raw TCP computing protocols. The word “PuTTY” has no meaning, though ‘tty’ is sometimes used to refer to the Unix terminals, as an acronym for ‘teletype’.

PuTTY was first written for Microsoft Windows, but it has been ported to other operating systems including some Unix-like platforms. Mac OS and Mac OS X are still being ported, while unofficial ports have been ported it to the Symbian and Windows Mobile operating systems.

PuTTY is currently beta software. Licensed under the MIT License, and it is free and open source software.

TightVNC is a cross-platform free and open-source remote desktop software application that uses and extends the RFB protocol of Virtual Network Computing (VNC) to control another computer’s screen remotely. It was created by Constantin Kaplinsky.