Birnam Designs Blog -- sharing tips, resources, ideas, and more on web development and design

One of the most brilliant applications I’ve used recently is called Synergy. Are you familiar with VNC, PC Anywhere, or Windows/Apple Remote Desktop? Synergy is basically a smart, scaled down version of these programs, and is meant for situations when you have the actual, physical computers right there on your desk.

Unlike VNC, etc., Synergy does not transfer any of the graphics between systems, only the mouse, keyboard, and clipboard. In this sense, it’s also like using a KVM switch to allow control of multiple computers from the same keyboard/mouse. But instead of buying an expensive switch (I couldn’t find any suitable for my needs under $75), all you do is drag the mouse off of one of the edges of your primary computer, and it pops up on another one, complete with keyboard control! So if you have a mac screen to the left of your PC screen, you can set up the left edge of the PC/right edge of the mac is the hot edge. Then you can drag the mouse between screens, just like it was one big desktop. Amazing.

Since we just added a new mac to our computer setup as a browser testbed, this has been an enormous benefit. No juggling multiple keyboards and mice!

Oh, and it’s 100% free. Incredible!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 17th, 2007 at 9:58 am and is filed under software, quick tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.