The concept intrigued me in that at work my main computer is a MacBook Pro, but I still have a PC under my desk that I access either through RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) or via the KVM (Keyboard Video Mouse) switch at my desk. In looking at this software it appeared I could control either without having to use the special KVM command or RDP connection. The downside (if you want to call it that) is that the PC would need it's own dedicated monitor for this to work.
So, I had a monitor under my desk that was sitting idle, and since it was a smaller/older model nobody was seeking to use it anywhere else, I decided to use it to try the software out. Took some time and organizing cables but I managed. Then installed the software on the PC. Since this would be a secondary system it would be set up as a "Client" in the software, and the MacBook Pro would act as the "Server." I didn't realize at first when I downloaded the OS X I didn't realize it only installs scripts that need called from the terminal. This would have been ok for me long term I guess, but at the time I didn't feel like messing with it, or spending a lot of time trying to figure out the syntax for the scripts. This in turn lead me to their Frequently Asked Questions page, which lead to their Related Products page, which linked to QSynergy which adds a unified graphical interface to the software that is available on OS X, Linux and Windows.
I chose to only use QSynergy on the MacBook and use Synergy's software on the PC since I already had it installed there. After installing QSynergy on the Mac, I went through the configuration, and set up the PC desktop to be to the Left of the Mac, then started the server. I already had configured the PC to connect to the Mac as the server and the link came up. Unfortunately, I had been connected to the PC via RDP, which had the screen locked and Synergy was actually connecting to the RDP session, even after disconnecting RDP, the display was black and I was unable to control. This puzzled me for a little while and I tried various settings in the server software to try to resolve it. In the end to resolve this I had to use the KVM to recontrol the PC and get the system out of the "locked" state. After that, I switched back to the Mac and moving the mouse to the left is just like having another display connected in a multi display configuration, except it is connected to a completely different computer.
Right off I did have some issue with my Spaces when switching between them the Keyboard didn't always follow, but after removing some settings I had put in place (when the screen stayed black) everything behaved as expected.
Overall, so far I'm really enjoying using this software to keep a windows desktop just a short mouse movement away for administrative stuff, as well as working with software that works best on PC. I've shown the software to a couple of co-workers and they commented on how responsive it was, it's hare to really even notice that the mouse and keyboard aren't physically connected to the "Client" machine. There are some things to keep in mind that I have noticed.
- The Windows keys don't function over the connection
- (Alt)+(Tab) doesn't work over the connection
- Copy/Paste doesn't work across the connection
- Qsynergy doesn't run as a background service (ie if you exit the application window, it closes the connection so Minimize is your friend here)
- Each machine requires its own physical display
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