Marc’s Musings Reality from Marc’s point of view!

**Update 1/24/2006***
Don’t download the 1.2.7 release, use instead 1.2.6. There is a problem with numlock and shift keys with the 1.2.7. I installed it and went back to 1.2.6 and am still very happy.
***End Update 1/24/2006**

Where KM is just a play on KVM (Keyboard, Video, Mouse). If you ever deal with more than one computer on your desktop and have plenty of screens but want to get yourself down to one keyboard and mouse, this is a solution for you.

I find the cramped keyboard and pointing solutions associated with laptop computers to be fine if you’re on the road. They are designed to work in a confined space and meet that need admirably. However, given the choice, I prefer the nicer feeling “real” keyboard with a separate keypad all the keys where my fingers “remember” them from years of touch-typing.
And nothing I’ve tried yet matches the precision and intuitiveness of a mouse for day-to-day GUI operations (note I’m not talking about specialized apps like gaming and the like).

Synergy (from Sourceforge.net) is a free software solution allows you to choose your primary computer and then allows you to control both the mouse and the keyboard for any number of different other computers. Linux, Windows, whatever, this will work. It even lets you share your clipboard across the different machines.

You can line up 5 laptops side-by-side and just run your mouse across all 5 screens if you choose. You can even go so far as to synchronize the screen savers.

All that’s required is that they all be talking via TCP/IP on the same network.

Take a look at it and don’t just dismiss it out of hand. It can take a few minutes to get your head around what it offers. This is a rock-solid application that impresses me a LOT.

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