Synergy: Best multi-computer app ever
I recently ran across a post on lifehacker.com about “How to turn your dual-monitor PC into a dual mac-PC system”. Seemed intriguing to me.
Up until about 8 months ago, I always only had a single desktop pc. At the end of last year, I treated myself to a new Toshiba laptop for Christmas. It quickly took over and became my main machine.
Then a few months ago I came into possession of a Mac mini. I did the whole KVM switch thing, but that didn’t ever thrill me so I ended up giving my desktop pc and mac mini each their own monitor, keyboard and mouse.
Then, I got another laptop from my company. I have an 8-foot long table as a desk, but it was getting crowded.
Then I started having wrist problems, so I got a tiltable laptop table to use as a keyboard tray and hooked that keyboard up to whichever laptop I was using. Now I was back to switching cables on the laptops, and could never reach the keyboards/mice on the desktop and mini.
Then I found Synergy, and mostly used the above post to download and set everything up. This is INCREDIBLE! Here’s my setup:
All four screens form a continuous pseudo-desktop. I can drag my mouse all the way from the mac on the far right, though the Toshiba, the ThinkPad, and right onto the desktop. If I keep dragging to the left, it wraps around back to the mac!
Whichever screen the mouse is in, that computer has keyboard focus. There is NO lag. It’s just like having a dual monitor system, times two, with each screen running its own environment.
Although you can’t drag and drop between screens, you can generally copy and paste text.
This is just the best thing ever. As I was writing this post, I jumped over to the IBM to read some mail, jumped over to the mac to switch songs on iTunes, and jumped over to the desktop to check the status of something I have running there. Then back to the Toshiba to finish. All as if it were one giant pc. Wow.