After doing some shuffling of desks, I now have my iMac and my MacBook Pro sitting next to each other. Everything was going well until I began to tire of switching between keyboards and mice every time I switched computers. Some quick Googling lead me right to Synergy.
This tiny application allows you to use one keyboard and mouse among all of the computers on your network. That’s right! Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X are all supported. You pick one computer to host the mouse and keyboard, and the rest receive their signal via the network. This sounds perfect, right? Well… There is a problem.
The set-up is a pain in the ass. You need to edit the configuration file in TextEdit, and then type in a string into the Terminal. You really need to read the documentation.
Once you have your configuration done, you launch the server application on the host computer, and the client software on everything else. If you want Synergy to launch automatically every time you login, they have a walkthrough for you.
All in all, it works seamlessly, but this application is not Mac-like in the least. There is no “Automagic” greatness. If you’re willing to futz for 15 minutes in the Terminal, you’ll end up with a great software input manager.
Photo Credit: mikebaird
