After my laptop died, more on that further down, I decided to bring home a Windows computer from work. Which meant that I had more computers than monitors. My monitor at the home office is a 19-inch wide screen combo TV/Monitor.
So I invested in a good KVM switch. The monitor is DVI and the keyboard and trackball I use are USB so that put me into the expensive KVM switches. I got an IO Gear GCS1764 switch. It will handle up to four computers.
It can also independently switch the "console (video and mouse/keyboard USB ports), audio (speakers and mike ports), and USB hub (two more USB ports). Which turns out to be pretty sweet. I can flip the keyboard and monitor over to the work Windows computer to do email etc while leaving the audio on the Linux computer running Amarok and playing music.
The computer I brought home is reasonably powerful but not a killer. Dual core 2.8GHz with 4GB of memory and a 250GB drive. Just right for running a handful of virtual machines.
My laptop did finally get replaced. The company is into serious penny pinching just now so I ended up with a cast-off Dell D-610, slightly more powerful than the antique D-600 that died. But at least I'm prepared if I need to travel. With the fast computer at home now, I'm considering not bothering to haul the laptop back and forth. Might just leave it in the docking station at work except when on the road.
3 comments:
Can't do trackballs. They annoy me. Too much like "Missile Command" -- never liked that game.
Been using a KVM for many moons, four boxes, since my router has four ports -- my bench is wired for four boxes, so easy to swap customer hardware in and out.
My main is still a w2k, and I've got an XP/Ubuntu dual boot box hooked up. Router gives me LAN + Internet to all.
Occasionally I'll use Screamer Radio or Pandora, but most of the time I prefer the quiet.
I go in spurts with music. Just now I'm into running something a pretty low volume in the background.
Got a KVM at the office where I have three machines and one display but it's just a plain ol' VGA/PS2 switch. I had brought one home and tried using it to flip between the laptop and the Linux desktop. But that KVM was flakey.
My KVM is PS/2 and VGA and it works fine with all versions of Windows and Linux I've tried. There have been some Dells that didn't like it, however. But then again, the feeling is mutual.
Post a Comment