I’ve been searching for a feature rather new to desktop computing, but requested for quite a while.
Me and my parents share a single computer at home, and would be very nice to have simultaneos usage of it. I mean different sessions, totally independent one of another, just by using another group of keyboard, mouse and video.
For Windows, there is no native software that accomplishes this. A software called BeTwin from “Thin Software Inc.” from Singapore is a good option and it works very well.
For Linux, a Brazilian university installed a few labs with a simmilar solution, just by using some kernel patches and other support software to make the input devices work (maybe it’s based on a currently working alternative but I think the original ideia is theirs).
And no, I don’t mean multiple shell sessions by telnet, ssh, nor Remote Desktops. No network access. I mean, sharing the physical machine (just in case of anyone came with that idea).
An ambient with very low latency could be ideal for this task and since we are very used to that kind of behavior , I thought that these two ideas should be put together.
(Just in case, if something sounds weird to understand - since I’m not a native english speaker - I’ll try to explain again, but in other words)
Me and my parents share a single computer at home, and would be very nice to have simultaneos usage of it. I mean different sessions, totally independent one of another, just by using another group of keyboard, mouse and video.
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And no, I don’t mean multiple shell sessions by telnet, ssh, nor Remote Desktops. No network access. I mean, sharing the physical machine (just in case of anyone came with that idea).
That sounds very similar to one of the alleged features of Yellowtab’s Zintro (see the picture posted at the following OSNews link - you’ll see dual KVM ports on the back)
There is "[...] 1 GHz C3 VIA CPU, 256 MB RAM, KVM switch, USB 2.0, sound, 40 GB drive, modem [...]"
Yes, I saw that reference to “KVM Switch” as well, but I believe that’s an inaccurate name for the feature - as a KVM switch (such as those by Belkin, IOGear, etc.) are for using a single KVM with multiple computers - whereas this is pretty much the opposite as a single computer would potentially power 2 separate keyboards/video/mice independently. The actual ZintrO box, does show dual keyboard, mouse, and video ports on the back, so it does indeed appear to be multiple “workstations” with a single CPU/HD/Modem/LAN/OS
I would be interested to see how they make it work.
, I thought that these two ideas should be put together.