How many of us have got more than one computer on our desks? The answer is almost certainly a lot of us! I have just set up my office in my new apartment (I moved on Monday!), and I decided that I didnt need to have to two keyboards and mice.
I have used synergy before, and have decided to use it again. For those that have not seen synergy before, it is akin to a KVM (keyboard, video, mouse sharing hardware) but is purely software. I can share a keyboard and mouse with any other machines on my network, they don’t even need to be in the same room (although what use that would be I don’t know!). The best bit is that synergy is free, and runs on Linux, Windows and Mac, and takes moments to set up.
I have a Windows 7 laptop and an Ubuntu 10.04 desktop, synergy runs as a server on the laptop allowing the desktop to connect to it. Installing Synergy on the desktop is easy, just download the installer from the Synergy website, as for Ubuntu just type:
sudo apt-get install synergy quicksynergy
Once installed you set up the server (in my case on the Windows machine) with a few simple clicks:
Synergy Screenshots
All you have to do is add the “screens” aka machines to the top list (Badwolf is my laptop, Paladon is my desktop : guess the naming convention!), then tell Synergy where the screens are in the links pane. You can get posh and set up the vertical positioning of the screens, e.g. 50% of the left of one is to the right of another, but I don’t see the need unless you have several machines. This screen is accessed via the “Configure” button on the right hand screen shot. Once set up click “Start”.
