Found an excellent but under-advertised tool called Synergy, which lets you control multiple machines from a single keyboard and mouse…
Ah, you say – isn’t that just a KVM (keyboard video monitor) switch. Mais non, because with this handy bit of software you have a monitor per computer, and seemlessly change which one you’re controlling using the mouse.. So if I go off the right hand side of this screen, I end up on the monitor next to mine.
Even this is borderline passe, until you realise that the computers can be running any combination of Linux, Windows, and MacOs. For instance, right now my ‘master’ computer is my main Linux box at work (a FC2 jobbie), on the left is a laptop running RH9, and on the right is a Windows 2K – all of which I control from the single keyboard and mouse attached to my FC2. OK, so it means I have two monitors (and a laptop) on my desk, but I can live with that.
In fact it’s such a nice solution, I’m considering digging out my old monitor at home, and doing the same thing there (at the moment it’s a KVM scenario).