Use Synergy to Control Two Computers

By Josh | September 26, 2008

What is Synergy?

If you have two computers in the same area, but only use one at a time, you could be using both with Synergy. I myself have my desktop and a laptop that usually just sits around. My laptop runs Windows XP and my desktop runs Ubuntu. I first went out looking for a way to maybe make my laptop into a secondary screen for my desktop, but that doesn’t seem possible. Instead, I found Synergy, which allows me to control both my desktop and laptop with one keyboard and one mouse.

Cross Platform

What’s really nice is that it works cross platform, meaning that you can use Windows on one computer and Linux on another. That means that I can use my laptop to sync my iPhone while using my desktop for mostly everything else. The Synergy website has some good instructions on getting it setup between computers. You may run into some problems, but they shouldn’t be too hard to solve by googling them. I ran into a problem of Windows not recognizing the hostname of my desktop. Instead I had to use the IP address of my desktop.

Conclusion

I’m really loving how I can use both of my computers at the same time. That way I don’t just have my laptop sitting on my desk doing nothing. It’s definitely worth a shot if you have the extra computer and time to get it set up.