Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

DeskHop – Fast Desktop Switching

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 285 posts

Re: DeskHop – Fast Desktop Switching

#131

Post by shepherdjerred »

deltaburnt wrote: post #129

After going down the hellish rabbit hole of KVM and thunderbolt dock shopping, I started to fantasize about doing a project like this. So many horror stories of cheap electronics frying your ports, the switch adding input delays, etc. It's not that I didn't want to shell out the money, but it seemed like all the recommended solutions were either ancient (still had VGA connections) or were enterprise grade (close to $…

That's what I do too. Thunderbolt is excellent, but it would be nice to not need to physically swap cables.

Re: DeskHop – Fast Desktop Switching

#132

Post by ravetcofx »

deltaburnt wrote: post #129

After going down the hellish rabbit hole of KVM and thunderbolt dock shopping, I started to fantasize about doing a project like this. So many horror stories of cheap electronics frying your ports, the switch adding input delays, etc. It's not that I didn't want to shell out the money, but it seemed like all the recommended solutions were either ancient (still had VGA connections) or were enterprise grade (close to $…

Thunderbolt 3/4 Switch for about $400 Canadian https://www.amazon.ca/Thunderbolt-Peripheral-Charging-Suppor...

Re: DeskHop – Fast Desktop Switching

#133

Post by samstave »

sheepscreek wrote: post #122

I’ve been using a software solution for this for over a decade. It’s called Synergy ( https://symless.com/synergy ) and it is fast - switches instantly over wifi and also works across Windows/Mac/Linux.

Cant believe I am only learning about this now. Darn - I've needed this for over a decade.

Also, havent heard Full Sail in a really long time... Had a friend from growing up that went there and became famous...

THanks for the link - Ill be installing this around my place today :-)

Re: DeskHop – Fast Desktop Switching

#134

Post by abustamam »

deltaburnt wrote: post #129

After going down the hellish rabbit hole of KVM and thunderbolt dock shopping, I started to fantasize about doing a project like this. So many horror stories of cheap electronics frying your ports, the switch adding input delays, etc. It's not that I didn't want to shell out the money, but it seemed like all the recommended solutions were either ancient (still had VGA connections) or were enterprise grade (close to $…

I use a software called Synergy.

https://symless.com/synergy

I have one keyboard and mouse connected to one "host" machine, and two machines connected as clients.

Sometimes if the host machine bogs a bit (like running a build or something) then the clients will have some latency but I've used this setup for gaming and work for two years and it's been pretty good.

My only complaint (about my personal setup, not the software) is that one machine has absolutely no peripherals attached to it aside from a monitor, so if I need to update the software, I need to connect a keyboard and mouse in order to do so.

Again, an issue with my setup and a caveat of using software as opposed to hardware.

Re: DeskHop – Fast Desktop Switching

#135

Post by fragmede »

nulld3v wrote: post #52

I have a similar project inspired by another similar project ( https://github.com/jfedor2/screen-hopper ). My own version of this consists of two programs. One program runs on a Linux desktop and listens to input events from the Linux input subsystem (evdev). When you press a specific key, it will start consuming all events and sending them over USB serial to a RPI Pico. Pressing the key again will toggle back into p…

> Ultimately I never ended up open sourcing it because of some USB serial bugs

Shouldn't that be a reason to open source it? Nerdsnipe someone else into figuring out the sublety that's causing the bug!

Re: DeskHop – Fast Desktop Switching

#136

Post by fragmede »

tiku wrote: post #81
tapland wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very nice to not require the computers to connect over the network.

This was a concern for me, that is why i've used Synergy over VPN and it worked quite well. It also works on networks where you can't reach the other pc's that way.

tailscale makes the VPN easy these days.

Re: DeskHop – Fast Desktop Switching

#137

Post by abustamam »

colordrops wrote: post #91
tiku wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was a concern for me, that is why i've used Synergy over VPN and it worked quite well. It also works on networks where you can't reach the other pc's that way.

I initially used synergy at work between two computers and a coworker teased me about the security implications, so I found it very little effort to pipe over an SSH tunnel

Can you share some info about that? How is it different from synergy business/enterprise where it encrypts your data? (aside from owning the encryption)

Re: DeskHop – Fast Desktop Switching

#138

Post by mouth »

nirav72 wrote: post #47

This been one of my biggest frustrations - I also use a USB 3.0 switch to toggle mouse & keyboard input between two PCs. I'll be on a teams call meeting where I don't have a lot to say and then someone mentions my name or messages me. I'm suddenly fiddling around looking to find the button to switch inputs back to the PC running teams. I thought about wiring up a ESP32 or Rpi Pico W with couple of optoisolators to th…

Have you looked into a headset compatible with Teams that has a mute button? My work provided a Logitech branded headset that has volume, hang up, and mute buttons on the cord, which makes it much easier to unmute myself while multitasking.

Re: DeskHop – Fast Desktop Switching

#140

Post by hrvach »

pcunite wrote: post #109

I literally installed Mouse without Borders this week! But hardware is better for secure login screens and the like. So, I still have a KVM switch. One thing I learned is that I don't want seamless mouse between two monitors. So, I setup "holding" down CTRL which allows the mouse to pass. Its just a nice way to stop accidents and for when I want auto window sizing at borders. This project looks great if it can suppor…

This is a really great idea! If you don't mind, I'll put this on a list of to-do features.

I was testing a "nudge" feature, where you need to move a mouse a little faster towards the other screen to have it jump across. It was not bad, even though I've found it to be most intuitive when the cursor simply moves freely like it was one big desktop.

Clipboard would be awesome to have, but considering privacy, security and data protection concerns, it's just too risky.

Post reply on HN