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Synergy: One keyboard (and mouse) to rule them all (Linux.com)

Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier looks at Synergy in a Linux.com article. "If you're one of the many users who has two (or more) computers on your desk, you might get tired of switching between the keyboard and mouse on different systems. KVMs are one solution, but if you'd like to save a few bucks and be able to switch between two or more computers with a flick of the mouse, Synergy is the software for you. Synergy allows you to use a single keyboard and mouse to control multiple computers running Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, and other operating systems. It also allows you to share clipboards between computers, so you can select text in a program on Linux, and paste it into an application in Windows. Best of all, Synergy is freely available under the GNU General Public License (GPL)."
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Synergy: One keyboard (and mouse) to rule them all (Linux.com)

Posted Jun 15, 2006 16:23 UTC (Thu) by tristangrimaux (guest, #26831) [Link]

I've been using Synergy for about a year (I'm using it right now) and its awesome. The computer on my left uses Windows and the computer in my right runs Linux. I share mouse and keyboard without a glitch.
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Donde Ser Geek No Duele

Shouldn't be compared to KVM

Posted Jun 15, 2006 19:32 UTC (Thu) by mikov (subscriber, #33179) [Link]

Comparing Synergy to a KVM is somewhat misleading - they have different roles and one cannot replace the other.

I am an example of this. I usually have more than three systems connected to my display, keyboard and mouse. Having four displays on a desk is clearly not a practical option. Some of the machines run a bare text console, so Synergy probably cannot be used. Others I need to reboot and tweak BIOS or GRUB settings, etc - again Synergy cannot be used there. Worst of all, the machines are not always connected to a network.

Alternatively in the cases where Synergy is clearly preferable, using a KVM would be just silly. Pasting text between machines can be immensely useful - sometimes I simply want to cry when I need to copy text between two KVM displays - I often end up printing it first.

What I mean is that the choice is not a matter of saving a few bucks - they are completely different things with completely different goals and functions. Cost is completely irrelevant (esp. considering that 2-port KVMs cost probably $20).

Synergy: One keyboard (and mouse) to rule them all (Linux.com)

Posted Jun 15, 2006 23:39 UTC (Thu) by job (guest, #670) [Link]

How does this differ from VNC? I've been using win2vnc to accomplish the same task for at least five years and it has always been working admirably.

This type of writing is all too common; describing one way to solve a problem but not even a hint why that way is better. I'm sure there is some reason, but I'm not going to find out.

umm, rtfa?

Posted Jun 16, 2006 2:04 UTC (Fri) by stevenj (guest, #421) [Link]

This type of writing is all too common; describing one way to solve a problem but not even a hint why that way is better.

Perhaps you missed the "Synergy alternatives" sidebar that compared it with VNC.

Synergy: One keyboard (and mouse) to rule them all (Linux.com)

Posted Jun 16, 2006 16:27 UTC (Fri) by TwoTimeGrime (guest, #11688) [Link]

> How does this differ from VNC?

It's like VNC but only deals with retargetting the mouse and keyboard, not the video.

Synergy: One keyboard (and mouse) to rule them all (Linux.com)

Posted Jun 22, 2006 13:45 UTC (Thu) by job (guest, #670) [Link]

> It's like VNC but only deals with retargetting the mouse and keyboard, not the video.

Win2vnc/x2vnc does exactly that, and has been around for ages.

Synergy: My Use Case

Posted Jun 16, 2006 6:11 UTC (Fri) by ctg (subscriber, #3459) [Link]

We have a wall of monitors.

Synergy enables me to simply move my mouse from the screen on my desktop,
up on to the "wall of monitors" and across them. (the wall of monitors is
showing events, alerts, graphs etc for an operations centre). Keyboard
focus follows the mouse. So without leaving my seat it is very easy and
intuitive to control all the screens. It's like having a one big Xinerama
display.

However, all the other guys in the team can do the same. Which is where
synergy really comes into its own: a kind of multi-user Xinerama: each
user has a private screen, together with a pool of shared screens.

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