Synergy

I have a couple computers at my desk at work, a Windows XP system and a OS X system. This results in 2 CPUs on the floor, 2 screens, 2 keyboards and 2 mice.

This means that if I wanted to use the Mac, I had to move my Windows keyboard and mouse out of the way to use the other devices, or move to get to an area where I had set up the Mac. It sounds like a small annoyance but this caused me to use the Mac less and less each day.

And today I came across a free program called Synergy. It allows you to designate one computer with the mouse and keyboard as the “server” and any others as “clients”. You then tell the program that, for example, the Mac is to the right of the Dell (and so on should you have multiple clients.)

So now, when I move my mouse to past the right edge of my Windows XP desktop, I’m suddently on the left edge of my OS X desktop. Using the keyboard and mouse that are hooked up to my Windows machine, I can now control my Mac. Does this make any sense? Move the mouse past the left edge of the OS X desktop, and I find myself using the Windows desktop.

It’s seamless and it’s great. Now I have both screens side by side and I am using 2 desktops without even thinking that they are separate computers. It’s so natural.

Posted by david at 2:29 pm | Permalink |

Filed under Observations