Flutterby™! : Mac, day 1

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Mac, day 1

2005-04-13 03:03:36.43744+00 by Dan Lyke 5 comments

Day 1 of serious work with the Mac. Fink is an absolute necessity, as is the realization that installing stuff from the distribution CD often means that the packages have been installed, and now you need to go to "Applications" to install the packages. Still not sure if my frustrations are actual frustrations or just a different way of working, I have to use this for a while before I know.

One glimmer of hope dashed was that I heard that x2x might work with a Mac. It might, but only with the X portions. Damn, because what it does is let you use one keyboard and mouse across multiple machines. Which would have totally rocked because then I could have the app running on the PowerBook display, a Linux[Wiki] box up for my editing, and a shared drive or SSH session in between to connect the two. Those who've used it on strictly X setups are overwhelmed by its massive coolness.

Speaking of multiple monitors, if all KVMs suck, anyone have experience on which ones suck least to connect a PowerBook and a PC to a common monitor and USB keyboard and mouse? I'm okay with having my other peripherals tied to a specific machine.

[ related topics: Free Software Dan's Life Open Source Work, productivity and environment Macintosh ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: KVMs made: 2005-04-13 12:41:25.231394+00 by: Jerry Halstead

I've tried a number of KVMs for my powerbook at home and the office. The best one so far is this little one from IOGear: http://www.iogear.com/main.php?loc=product&Item=GCS712U

Just works. No mechanical button (which is sometimes nicer than keyboard shortcuts) but otherwise it does a great job. Which is funny because an earlier one I'd bought of theirs (http://www.iogear.com/ main.php?loc=product&Item=GCS1712 I think) totally sucked. It's problem was that it told the computer that it was a generic keyboard/mouse, so any special mice or keyboards (wheels, buttons, etc...) didn't get reported.

I have the OmniView SOHO at home (http://www.kvm-switches-online.com/belkin-omniview-soho- series.html) and it's ok, but I'd buy the little iogear today if given a choice.

One thing I've found with PBs and KVMs is your best bet for consistent behavior (sleep, etc..) is to plug the usb cable in first wait a couple seconds then plug in monitor cable. When disconnecting do just the opposite: monitor, pause, usb. Also, do all of your connecting/disconnecting when the PB is awake. Before doing this I had a couple instances of the PB thinking it didn't have ANY display.

I use MS keyboard/mice at home & work and have installed the os x extensions for both.

It's only for windows/Mac but Spike (http://www.porchdogsoft.com/products/spike/) is a nice little shared clipboard app.

#Comment Re: made: 2005-04-13 17:18:36.705692+00 by: TheSHAD0W

Try http://www.realvnc.com/ instead of x2x.

#Comment Re: made: 2005-04-13 17:40:08.53422+00 by: Dan Lyke

But that would mean both monitors attached to a single machine. The beauty of x2x is that then both machines can be hardware accelerated out the wazoo.

#Comment Re: made: 2005-04-14 13:19:08.999899+00 by: Bryant [LID/890]

I've been using a Dr. Bott MoniSwitch USB for several years now, and it rocks. The old IOGear I had was not half as good.

#Comment Re: made: 2005-04-16 22:30:46.551445+00 by: Shawn

Becuase I've been a previous customer, I just got an e-mail from Stardock about the new suite of applications they're working on. As fate would have it, one of the products (and it's apparently the first available) is Multiplicity - which appears to provide the same functionality as x2x (assuming I'm understanding the product correctly - never heard of it until this post). The last bullet point says an OSX[Wiki] client is under development.