KVM’ing Extreme
Until a few minutes ago, I thought of my KVM solution to be rather clever. Being able to control two computers with one set of mouse and keys is pretty neat. Turns out that I am a lousy amateur as other people have taken that to a whole new level.
The photo above shows 11 screens connected to nine computers (Five Macs, three PCs and a Linux machine) - And all controlled with one set of keys and mouse.
Found on Flickr
My Mac - Getting Started
After watching a promotional video of Leopard a few weeks ago, I´ve made the decision to join the fun - Get a Mac.
But it was not quite as simple as that as I had to find a way to integrate it in my personal workflow. Being a passionate PC sim racer, I was not willing to give up my Windows PC at all.
After quite some thinking back and fourth, I decided that going with a KVM switch would be the best route. It allows me to share a set of Screen, Mouse and Keys with two computers.
The decision which Mac to get was not a pretty hard one. Since I did not need another screen and don’t like glare type displays either, the iMac was out of the question. I wasn’t really keen to spend that much on my first Mac either, there was the possibility that I don’t enjoy it.
With those factors in mind, the Mac Mini was the way to go. I opted for the 1.83 Ghz one and did not mind the rather small 80 GB harddrive since most of my data is stored on USB drives and network devices.
The only modification I needed was more ram. With lots of Windows experience, I figured that 1 GB could be a little small, especially when working with applications such as Photoshop. And with another 1 GB, there is more to be eaten up by mallware and stuff like that….wait no, that’s the Windows user speaking…. I would actually be able to use the additional memory 
Because of the recent price drop, I was able to pick up my 2 GB Mac Mini for very reasonable 529 Euros.
Along with the Mac, I bought the Apple Wireless keyboard since I would need all the fancy special Mac keys.
Taking it all home, I was facing the challenge to connect both computers with the KVM switch. To my surprise, it all went rather smoothly and now I´m able to switch between the Mac and the PC with the click of a button.
But who wants to think about the old PC when Leopard is booting up for the very first time…
