Client-side, I use Xming and the X2Go client. These are very easy to set up.
Server side, I installed NX / FreeNX. One could go with a VNC server or many other options, but I found that FreeNX seemed to work better for my needs and the server-side desktop UI just seemed snappier for me.
I've used most systems out there, and don't have a long-standing preference. Still, a word of advice: it's best to learn how to set these up via a script, and save your script in case you want to re-generate your AMI. The various configuration contortions you may go through are not worth re-learning should you decide to produce a new AMI from scratch.
It's good to learn your options for client and server side software and tinker with each one at a time. I started several cheap spot instances while finding which setup worked best for me.
As a note, I'm also running an ubuntu VM on my local machine, would it be easier or harder or the same to connect to the EC2 instance? I have no problems going through the VM if it makes my headaches go away, haha. – None – 2012-01-18T06:19:17.243
I'm trying X2Go and I get an authentication failure when I try to connect saying that I don't have the right key. What format does the .pem I got from amazon need to be in? – None – 2012-01-18T06:23:12.590
I half got it working, any fun hints you have would be appreciated. – None – 2012-01-18T07:00:39.000
I forgot to mention that ElasticFox is an excellent Firefox plugin, which saves me a little time on attaching volumes, getting an instance's IP address, shutting things down, etc. It is better than the console for everything except starting spot instances. – Iterator – 2012-01-18T12:35:11.650
Or did you mean hints on getting the PEM thing working? – Iterator – 2012-01-18T12:36:16.113
I got everything working, except somehow I corrupted gnome installing the x2go server. I'm going to try again later, but I was able to successfully connect and partially navigate the GUI. – None – 2012-01-18T19:29:45.750