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Microsoft Garage releases Mouse Without Borders

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Re: Microsoft Garage releases Mouse Without Borders

#51

Post by mellifluousmind »

techsupporter wrote: post #42
PyErr_SetString wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"All employees at MSFT get more than one machine connected to many screens" Just out of curiosity, why does everyone need more than one machine?

They don't. Perhaps all devs get more than one machine, but not every employee ("blue badge") gets a 2nd or more system. My sole company-issued computer is a ThinkPad. Note: I'm in Ops at MSFT.

That's really odd. I used to work under Windows Live org, and all the Ops we know have more than one machine (at minimum, a laptop and a desktop). Even the orange badge has more than one machine...

Honestly, the only blue badge that doesn't really need more than one machine is PM. Both SDE and SDET definitely need more than one to develop and test. Ops can manage a cloud with just one, but in theory, we all know that Ops has access to a ton of VMs, so I consider them as more than one machine.

Re: Microsoft Garage releases Mouse Without Borders

#52

Post by mellifluousmind »

PyErr_SetString wrote: post #43
techsupporter wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't. Perhaps all devs get more than one machine, but not every employee ("blue badge") gets a 2nd or more system. My sole company-issued computer is a ThinkPad. Note: I'm in Ops at MSFT.

Yeah, I thought that sounded strange. It would even be slightly embarrassing if all people needed more than one machine to get their job done.

Yes, economy does impact internally at Microsoft. Thankfully, we have Hyper-V to have more than one OS in a given box. But back in the old days, two machines per person was pretty standard. I no longer work for MSFT, so not all orgs still stick to the same policy

Re: Microsoft Garage releases Mouse Without Borders

#53

Post by mellifluousmind »

sakura_k wrote: post #36

Perhaps if the article were more accurate - "Microsoft developer releases side project into the wild" - this would be better received? The Garage is a loose collective of people building things in their spare time. It's not a formal organization and people who work on Garage projects come from all over the world. Those who are drawn to ambitious side projects would probably fit in pretty well here. Kudos to this proj…

I agree. For those that never worked for MSFT will have a hard time to know that Garage is an internal MSFT lingo for MSFT version of 20% free time. But yes, essentially, it is a MSFT Dev who wrote the code as side project and released to the wild.

It is a great for PR, but they really need to make a better video. I couldn't understand what he was saying, because the volume was so low.

Re: Microsoft Garage releases Mouse Without Borders

#54

Post by rbanffy »

adgar wrote: post #47
dmn001 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a computer that does not have either a mouse keyboard or monitor attached to it, to use it I switch it on and wait for it to boot, then use windows RDP to login. I can view the screen, move the mouse across monitors seamlessly, use the clipboard. The only thing extra here is the file sharing - I can just hook up an external drive or sync using dropbox.

> The only thing extra here is the file sharing - I can just hook up an external drive or sync using dropbox. I'm not Microsoft fanboy, but you don't just dismiss a new feature because there exist clunky workarounds. I mean, you can use a manual switch to workaround the mouse/keyboard/monitor sharing as well. You can also work around it by having a monitor, keyboard, and mouse for every machine.

> you don't just dismiss a new feature because there exist clunky workarounds.

True. I dismissed it because it wouldn't help with my Linux and Mac desktops. Software development hasn't been a Windows-only ecosystem for a long time.

Re: Microsoft Garage releases Mouse Without Borders

#55

Post by rbanffy »

PyErr_SetString wrote: post #40
hamidpalo wrote: post #28

This is an internal tool that has been apparently been made public. All employees at MSFT get more than one machine connected to many screens. Mouse Without Borders was developed by a group of employees in their free time to make it easier to deal with multiple Windows desktops. IMHO it is much nicer and more secure than Synergy for managing Windows machines. It's not a clone of anything. The Garage is MSFTs version…

"All employees at MSFT get more than one machine connected to many screens" Just out of curiosity, why does everyone need more than one machine?

When I worked in a big Windows-centric company developing hardware and software for Windows CE (mid-2002), I had two desktops, one associated with the corporate domain, where I could print and read e-mails off their Exchange server, and another, where I had administrative privileges (VS required them to attach debuggers to processes) that didn't connect to the corporate network at all.

If you develop pieces of the OS, I would assume they would give you a machine to rebuild occasionally (because you'll probably destroy it a couple times) and one to be a well-adjusted corporate citizen, reading your e-mail and filling out your paperwork.

Re: Microsoft Garage releases Mouse Without Borders

#56

Post by dmn001 »

adgar wrote: post #47
dmn001 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a computer that does not have either a mouse keyboard or monitor attached to it, to use it I switch it on and wait for it to boot, then use windows RDP to login. I can view the screen, move the mouse across monitors seamlessly, use the clipboard. The only thing extra here is the file sharing - I can just hook up an external drive or sync using dropbox.

> The only thing extra here is the file sharing - I can just hook up an external drive or sync using dropbox. I'm not Microsoft fanboy, but you don't just dismiss a new feature because there exist clunky workarounds. I mean, you can use a manual switch to workaround the mouse/keyboard/monitor sharing as well. You can also work around it by having a monitor, keyboard, and mouse for every machine.

RDP has been around for over a decade and works fine. Transferring 100's of gigabytes of data over wireless is a nightmare. Keeping small amounts of data in sync by dragging and dropping every 10 minutes is a clunky workaround.

To clarify, I am not dismissing the feature, it may be useful for those who are running multiple computers and monitors side by side, which I am not.

Re: Microsoft Garage releases Mouse Without Borders

#57

Post by hamidpalo »

PyErr_SetString wrote: post #40
hamidpalo wrote: post #28

This is an internal tool that has been apparently been made public. All employees at MSFT get more than one machine connected to many screens. Mouse Without Borders was developed by a group of employees in their free time to make it easier to deal with multiple Windows desktops. IMHO it is much nicer and more secure than Synergy for managing Windows machines. It's not a clone of anything. The Garage is MSFTs version…

"All employees at MSFT get more than one machine connected to many screens" Just out of curiosity, why does everyone need more than one machine?

At minimum people get a laptop and a desktop, and quite a bit of time you see more than one desktop in offices. I haven't seen anyone in the engineering disciplines with fewer than two.

Having more than one machine is very handy for when you need to run VMs to test different versions, and not risk getting your own main machine into a bad state. If you work on services, the VM runs a local copy of the service.

Re: Microsoft Garage releases Mouse Without Borders

#58

Post by PyErr_SetString »

lurker19 wrote: post #48
PyErr_SetString wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I thought that sounded strange. It would even be slightly embarrassing if all people needed more than one machine to get their job done.

Microsoft develops operating systems.

I am aware of that :) When developing OS it might make sense to have two machines. (unless you can run in a VM, which I think many could)

But, not everyone at MS works with windows, which is why I was a little surprised about the statement that everyone had more than one machine.

Re: Microsoft Garage releases Mouse Without Borders

#60

Post by vtbassmatt »

evanlong wrote: post #39
ck2 wrote: post #19

Input Director - used it with my netbook for years now. It also does shared copy/paste which is really handy. http://www.inputdirector.com/ And it can encrypt the communications, I wonder if MS bothers?

When I was at MSFT there was an internal tool call Magic Mouse that did what Mouse without Borders does. Magic Mouse had encryption so I would venture a guess that Mouse without Borders does as well.

MWB = Magic Mouse v.next
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