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The Peculiarly Quiet Decline and Fall of the KVM

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Re: The Peculiarly Quiet Decline and Fall of the KVM

#81

Post by ghaff »

sdfjkl wrote: post #25

KVM switches used to be a huge and super important (and expensive) thing in rack server farms back when every rack or every few racks had a pull-out tray with a keyboard and a monitor. Technology moved on. First the tray and monitor disappeared with KVM-over-IP, which saved many trips to the server room. Then the KVM switches themselves disappeared, as manufacturers integrated out-of-band remote access into the serve…

I actually bought a 4-port USB/HDMI switch model fairly recently. It's really just a clutter and convenience thing. I have a few computers, including Raspberry Pis, that I just fiddle around with sometimes. While I could do things in different ways, it's just simple to have one monitor, keyboard, and mouse and plug the computers into the switch.

Re: The Peculiarly Quiet Decline and Fall of the KVM

#83

Post by j_s »

ghaff wrote: post #81
sdfjkl wrote: post #25

KVM switches used to be a huge and super important (and expensive) thing in rack server farms back when every rack or every few racks had a pull-out tray with a keyboard and a monitor. Technology moved on. First the tray and monitor disappeared with KVM-over-IP, which saved many trips to the server room. Then the KVM switches themselves disappeared, as manufacturers integrated out-of-band remote access into the serve…

I actually bought a 4-port USB/HDMI switch model fairly recently. It's really just a clutter and convenience thing. I have a few computers, including Raspberry Pis, that I just fiddle around with sometimes. While I could do things in different ways, it's just simple to have one monitor, keyboard, and mouse and plug the computers into the switch.

Do you have time to link the specific product if it has been working well for you? I personally wouldn't even mind a referral link though most get downvoted, especially if they lack a disclaimer.

Something that can reliably connect to random/miscellaneous projects would be really useful to me!

Re: The Peculiarly Quiet Decline and Fall of the KVM

#84

Post by matthewaveryusa »

kindfellow92 wrote: post #4

Synergy ( https://symless.com/synergy ) may have had something to do with it.

FYI synergy is free and oss[1] but I would still recommend paying for it because it's priced fairly and I want to support the development behind it. I think synergy is text-book "how to make money with oss."

[1] https://github.com/symless/synergy-core

Re: The Peculiarly Quiet Decline and Fall of the KVM

#85

Post by [deleted] »

sdfjkl wrote: post #25

KVM switches used to be a huge and super important (and expensive) thing in rack server farms back when every rack or every few racks had a pull-out tray with a keyboard and a monitor. Technology moved on. First the tray and monitor disappeared with KVM-over-IP, which saved many trips to the server room. Then the KVM switches themselves disappeared, as manufacturers integrated out-of-band remote access into the serve…

[deleted]

Re: The Peculiarly Quiet Decline and Fall of the KVM

#86

Post by eigenrick »

kindfellow92 wrote: post #4

Synergy ( https://symless.com/synergy ) may have had something to do with it.

I, too, tried in vain to buy a decent quality 4k KVM. Oddly the video worked better than the USB mouse/keyboard. (?)

Having failed the KVM route, I, too became a Synergy fan. I don't think Synergy caused the decline of KVM, but it synergy's success is certainly correlated. :)

Re: The Peculiarly Quiet Decline and Fall of the KVM

#87

Post by k__ »

Haha, those were the days!

I had one for my dual desktop setup back in the days.

Had a Windows and a Linux machine, but was too poor for second mouse/keyboard/monitor. The Linux machine was some old PC I built from spare parts.

I already had a switch that let me change the PC via ctrl+esc on the keyboard.

At my first job as a PC technician we still had the old ones with physical switches.

Re: The Peculiarly Quiet Decline and Fall of the KVM

#88

Post by skriticos2 »

This does not surprise me at all. I have a 4k screen and just thinking about all the fiddly bits between HDMI, HDCP and Freesync/Gsync between the computer and the screen makes it quite difficult to build a switch. VGA was primitive, but simple to switch, those times are gone. My computers usually make a fuss if I just switch off the screen and back on, because both sides seem to have some active signaling going on and way too much logic.

Ps: USB switches for the KM parts are rather simple though and there is a healthy offering (+ you can build this yourself with some extension cords and a simple USB switch). Also, more and more of my devices move wireless (e.g. audio).

Re: The Peculiarly Quiet Decline and Fall of the KVM

#90

Post by ghaff »

j_s wrote: post #83
ghaff wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually bought a 4-port USB/HDMI switch model fairly recently. It's really just a clutter and convenience thing. I have a few computers, including Raspberry Pis, that I just fiddle around with sometimes. While I could do things in different ways, it's just simple to have one monitor, keyboard, and mouse and plug the computers into the switch.

Do you have time to link the specific product if it has been working well for you? I personally wouldn't even mind a referral link though most get downvoted, especially if they lack a disclaimer. Something that can reliably connect to random/miscellaneous projects would be really useful to me!

This is what I got: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XRDS1CG/ref=oh_aui_deta...

It seems to work fine although I haven't used it a huge amount.

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