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Comment by treyfitty | Hacker News Reader

I suppose the only thing that makes this a better proposition is Logitechs Flow software, which allows you to use the same keyboard/mouse across multiple devices on your network, without having to manually switch.

Otherwise, keychron's low-profile keyboards are a better value.

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I came here saying that I would never again use software for a peripheral (keyboard, mouse) to control color, etc.. that must be kept running to maintain settings. I'm looking at you Razor Mouse. It's one thing to have custom software to set settings but the idea that the peripheral can't maintain those settings unless the software is kept running is ridiculous to me. My GMMK keyboard, for instance, it's a bit awkward but you don't need custom software to control color or custom functions, you can switch most of those using the keyboard itself or run software, set your settings, then exit the software and maintain your settings.

In my experience, Logi Flow has been somewhat wonky. I think a better, more stable option is to use a KVM.

Or there's Microsoft's Mouse Without Borders, which can be used with any brand mouse/keyboard. I use it all the time.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/mouse-...

Right, but that's only for Windows. Logitech Flow supports Mac + Windows.

> Logitechs Flow software

How does it compare to Synergy or Mouse without borders?

https://symless.com/synergy

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/garage/wall-of-fame/mouse-wi...

there is subtle difference in situation you both describing, but that subtle difference can be HUGE thing.

MX series can be connected to multiple devices, most bluetooth accessories cant, still in BT5 world, but thats how it is.

so. even if software is absolutely same, you get better experience with MX keyboards.. because you dont have to pair it everytime you take your keyboard to work etc. which most keyboards fail to do. which is ridiculous. also with mx keyboard you can use it on your ipad, pc,.... and there is button or key shortcut(depends on model) which helps you to switch to that other device.

so you can have ipad + desktop in front of you and when you are writing on pc and your ipad email notification goes on, you just press keyboard shorcut and you can start typing on your ipad.

sorry for this convoluted explanation, but in real use it removes so many annoyances that it is worth mentioning.

mx series of products is best product line from all manufacturers of this kind of accessory combined and i can tell you i had a looooot of wireless keyboards in my life. i use ipad more that 10 years and had almost always keyboard connected. first ipad was trash as..

and this switching works even if you do not use ANY software.

Yes, that is multi-device bluetooth. Neat and definitely better implemented than in some cheaper devices. However, the question was specifically about the flow software.

Personally I prefer Synergy. Paid for it a decade or more ago, and it works well.

I have one of their MX Vertical mice connected to my phone, laptop, and desktop, and can switch between the pairings with the hardware button on the bottom. If I was traveling a lot, I'd probably consider this as a good option to have a compact-but-comfortable keyboard.

Keychron has too high latency for me, I'm hoping this has a more acceptable input lag.

Keychron has been amazing, 0 issues for me. Flow looks cool but I would question reliability.

> the only thing that makes this a better proposition is Logitechs Flow software

Not sure if you've tried Flow but personally, in my experience of using it (on Mac), I would not recommend it at all.

Their hardware is very good (I have an MX Keys keyboard and MX Master 3 mouse) but the software is buggy and doesn't live up to its marketing promises; especially Flow. To the degree that it somewhat devalues the otherwise well built hardware devices.

Flow is not very reliable for me. It wouldn't be quite so bad but Logitech have a very strange design flaw in their Flow implementation which compounds the software issues; the MX Keys keyboard has 3x dedicated device buttons to allow you to manually switch between host computers, but this does not sync with the mouse - which has its own button on the underside.

When you switch between computers via software using Flow (when it works), it moves both mouse and keyboard at the same time. But when Flow flakes out, as it often does, you have to revert back to using the dedicated button on the keyboard AND turn your mouse upside down and click the switch button multiple times to also switch it to the new host.

It seems to be madness that they have designed a matching pair of keyboard and mouse, with this advertised "multiple host" capability, and yet the very obvious feature of switching both keyboard AND mouse together, to the same host via the dedicated keyboard keys is absent.

Here's a 2 year old Logitech forum post about this issue with 674 upvotes: https://support.logi.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/3600507556...

And another 2 year old post with 275 votes: https://support.logi.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/3600493206...

Logitech say its "difficult to implement" and yet there are a number of workarounds on GitHub that people have come up with to fix this behaviour. Knowing that the Flow software has full control over which host the keyboard and mouse are assigned to, having the software/driver automatically switch both devices when the dedicated button is pressed on the keyboard seems like it should not be difficult to implement.

I'm now using macOS' new Universal Control feature instead which is a good reliable implementation of what Flow tried to achieve. Switching between my Macs has been 100% reliable since using Universal Control. The downside is the special functions of the MX Master mouse do not carry over to the second Mac (scroll wheel behaviour is different and difficult to control, dedicated buttons don't work). So there are a different set of compromises. I now plan to look at hacking up something that uses a combination of Universal Control and some custom messages sent to the keyboard/mouse to have them switch hosts based on when Universal Control switches hosts.

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