Kaboodle allows you to visualize your local network, control computers on it via VNC, and connect to other Kaboodle-enabled networks. Kaboodle was developed for Windows, but according to its Web site, it will happily run under Wine on Linux and FreeBSD.

When Kaboodle finds a new device on the network, it checks to see whether it can control the device remotely. Kaboodle supports both Microsoft's Remote Desktop and VNC. If the device can be controlled via VNC, Kaboodle places a tiny V label on top of it. To connect to the device, double-click on it and click on the VNC Setup tab. Enter the VNC password, if necessary, and press the Connect button. If the target machine doesn't run a VNC server, Kaboodle will attempt to install the server, activate it, and then initiate a session.