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The title says it all: I have a workstation at work (Ubuntu 12.04 LTS) and I want to access it from my home laptop (also running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS). I already do it via SSH, but would now like a GUI.

Do people recommend I use vnc or SSH with a gui?

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VNC by itself is generally considered insecure, partly because some clients/servers limit the password length to 8 characters. SSH is generally only terminal, but there is a feature called X11 Forwarding, which can forward any X11 application windows you open on the remove computer on your own desktop.

However, you can use VNC over an SSH connection. This gives you the benefits of a VNC connection (full control of desktop, etc.) while making it much more secure, as the connection will be encrypted by your SSH private key (hopefully, unless you're just using a password). This works by forwarding port 5900 on the remote computer to port 5900 on your remote computer in SSH. Then, in your VNC client, you use 127.0.0.1 (loopback address) as the IP address and 5900 as the port, and enter the password (if any). There should be several guides on the internet about this.

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