Hacker News Reader

Comment by nhebb | Hacker News Reader

> In addition to the file movement features, Mouse Without Borders also allows the user to log onto all the PCs linked together by the program via just one PC.

That's the big one. I use a commercial tool (MaxiVista) right now, and I've used Synergy in the past (buggy). The drawback of both is that you need a separate keyboard for each system to log in, and then you can use the software as a KVM. If Mouse Without Borders allows you to log into a separate computer, then it adds real value above the others.

View on HN

No you don't. I have a separate PC next to my desktop, and it doesn't have anything connected to it but the screen. I run synergy as a service so it's ready to connect as soon as it boots up.

It's not single sign on, but it's very handy.

I never got that to work on a pair of Vista / XP systems. The target system had several password protected user profiles. I needed to have a keyboard on the target system to do the login, and then Synergy would launch after the user logged in.

I had problems too, but it somehow worked in the end. I think I used synergy+.

Synergy+ is still awfull and hasn't been updated in years. The only benefit? It works well cross platform. I've succesfully had Linux/Mac/Windows sharing keyboard/mouse.

I agree, but I need to share my mouse between my Ubuntu and Windows PCs, so that's the only solution I know of.

Running both PCs practically without reboot, Synergy needs restarting about once a month. I do not need more than one keyboard and mouse. I can't log in to both at once, but then a) one is not Windows, as is this case for most people in my office; b) I type my login enough times per day that once or twice for each system makes no difference.

I have a computer that does not have either a mouse keyboard or monitor attached to it, to use it I switch it on and wait for it to boot, then use windows RDP to login. I can view the screen, move the mouse across monitors seamlessly, use the clipboard. The only thing extra here is the file sharing - I can just hook up an external drive or sync using dropbox.

> The only thing extra here is the file sharing - I can just hook up an external drive or sync using dropbox.

I'm not Microsoft fanboy, but you don't just dismiss a new feature because there exist clunky workarounds.

I mean, you can use a manual switch to workaround the mouse/keyboard/monitor sharing as well. You can also work around it by having a monitor, keyboard, and mouse for every machine.

> you don't just dismiss a new feature because there exist clunky workarounds.

True. I dismissed it because it wouldn't help with my Linux and Mac desktops. Software development hasn't been a Windows-only ecosystem for a long time.

RDP has been around for over a decade and works fine. Transferring 100's of gigabytes of data over wireless is a nightmare. Keeping small amounts of data in sync by dragging and dropping every 10 minutes is a clunky workaround.

To clarify, I am not dismissing the feature, it may be useful for those who are running multiple computers and monitors side by side, which I am not.

RDP has file sharing too actually, go into the Drives tab on TS client.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com