Ok, I’ll preface this article mentioning that having and managing more then one computer at a time is a not typical problem for most people.

However, for the typical nerdy keyboard jockey it can become a cumbersome task. Thankfully, the guys over at http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/ have developed a cross-platform tool to effortlessly share your keyboard, mouse, and clipboard over any combination of OS X, Windows, and Linux computers. I’ve had my MacBook Pro, Windows XP, and Ubuntu 7.04 machines all lined up and controllable with a single mouse and keyboard without any extra hardware. You can even sync screen savers on most systems.

All thats required is a minimal knowledge of networking to modify a configuration file on the host machine to correctly point to client machines on the network and configure their screen positions (left of host, above host etc. etc.). I’d strongly suggest giving this a shot before you run out to the store for a hardware solution.