How to Share a single keyboard, mouse, and clipboard between Windows and UNIX machines
Generally, you need some sort of hardware to share a single keyboard / mouse between different machines. However, Synergy software lets you share a single keyboard, mouse, and clipboard between machines without special hardware. It's intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s).
It is common practice to run Windows XP and UNIX boxes side by side for various reasons. Synergy is open source and released under the GNU Public License (GPL). It works with Windows, Mac OS X and UNIX operating systems.
In the following example, the user is moving the mouse from left to right. When the cursor reaches the right edge of the left screen it jumps instantly to the left edge of the right screen. Do you wish you could cut and paste between computers? Now you can! Just copy text, HTML, or an image as you normally would on one screen then switch to another screen and paste it. It's as if all your computers shared a single clipboard (and separate primary selection for you X11 users). It even converts newlines to each computer's native form so cut and paste between different operating systems works seamlessly. And it does it all in Unicode so any text can be copied.

(Fig 01: Synergy software in action ~ sharing mouse between Windows and Linux KDE desktop (image credit: Synergy project] )
Download synergy
=> You can download synergy software here.
Want to stay up to date with the latest Linux tips, news and announcements? Subscribe to our free e-mail newsletter or RSS feed to get all updates.
You can Email this page to a friend.
You may also be interested in other helpful articles:
- Gnome or KDE Keyboard Shortcuts you must know
- USB Penguin Mouse
- Howto: Linux configure the Mouse at a text based terminal for copy and paste operation
- Download of the day: SSH Menu ~ Save and Open SSH Connections on a single mouse click
- Firefox 2.0 - First impression
Discussion on This Article:
Leave a Reply
We encourage your comments, and suggestions. But please stay on topic, be polite, and avoid spam. Thank you very much for stopping by our site!
Tags: desktop image, keyboard mouse, mac os x, multiple computers, synergy project, synergy software, unix boxes, unix operating systems



I was wondering how the copy-paste thing works. Where does it store text when someone copies? Because the two machines have different CPUs, so to do copy-paste between these 2 machines, you have to store data in mouse/keyboard, or you have to send the copied text through some method. How does it do that?
rohitj,
It works in client / server model. For example, install server on Windows 2000 and client on Mac OS X or Linux. Start the services and it will detect everything for you. Please read docs on official site for more.
I was wondering whether you can do it in a opposite way. I have a Linux box, can two sets of monitor, keyboard and mouses connect to it and work as individual workstation?
this is realy good !!!.
thanks
Rahish Ahamad