Synergy!

Quick application review time!

If you have two or more computers at your desk, you probably know the irritation at having multiple mice and keyboards cluttering the workspace or you had to get a KVM switch, a box that lets you hook up one Keyboard, Video device, and Mouse (that's the acronym, in case you missed it) to two or more computers. This option also comes with the occasional loss of hair since some computers like to have issues with the keyboard not responding properly or the video mode going wonky if the computer switches on while it didn't have the KVM's focus or some other anomaly in behavior.

Here's one more alternative, with the assumption that your computers are networked and the other systems have their own displays near each other (you still have to give up desktop space to multiple monitors with this option). You designate your primary workstation as the "server", the system from which you want to use the keyboard and mouse. You then install Synergy on all the computers you want to control from this keyboard and mouse. On your "primary system" you run Synergy Server. On the other system(s) you run the client, telling them to connect (using the network address) to the server you're sitting at.

For my Ubuntu system it's even simpler...you can install a graphical front end for Synergy to set up the server options. I get a display with an icon between four points (actually labels); one each above, below, to the left and right of the computer icon. I enter the name of the client I want to allow in the box on the left side of the icon, and tell Synergy to run with the Execute button. Then on the client machine I type the command to have the Synergy client connect to my server, and voila'! When I slide my mouse pointer to the left side of the screen, it appears on the other computer. My mouse and keyboard are now controlling that system. Slide it offscreen to the right on the client, it appears back on my "server". You can control up to four computers this way, sliding the pointer up, down, to the left or right of your primary monitor.

I use this function at work to control a second system I'm using right now and often have my laptop controlled this way when I need to access it on the desk to avoid stretching over things to reach the keyboard. I just need it open close enough that I can read the display and use my full size keyboard and mouse to pop into the laptop display when I need to enter commands on that system, then slide the pointer back off to my own display to resume working on that system.

It does not steal the client system's control of the mouse or keyboard either...if you reach over and type on that keyboard, it still works just fine.

Personally I like to tunnel Secure shell and have the Synergy client pointed at itself...secure shell redirects the program to talk to my server and that way it's encrypted when I am typing information. But that's a bit advanced for many people to try setting up.

Synergy itself is cross platform; you can use any combination of Windows, Linux, and OS X systems to control with it (I use it on two Linux systems and the Mac notebook). This is one of those utilities that fills a really niche need, and it fills that need well.

If you're using multiple systems at your desk, or need to occasionally pop open your notebook computer while at your desktop computer and want a little more convenience in arranging your desktop real estate, look into Synergy as a way to help simplify things a bit. I'm glad I found it!