6 ms·

Before you pass this off as a Synergy clone, check this out: > As Microsoft's Steve Clayton explains, "I have two PC’s on my desk at work connected to 3 LCD sc

Before you pass this off as a Synergy clone, check this out: > As Microsoft's Steve Clayton explains, "I have two PC’s on my desk at work connected to 3 LCD screens and using Mouse Without Borders I can move my mouse between the 3 screens, even though one of them is attached to a different PC from the other two. What’s more, I can move files between the 2 computers simply by dragging them from one desktop to another." > In addition to the file movement features, Mouse Without Borders also allows the user to log onto all the PCs linked together by the program via just one PC. So yes, more than just a limited Synergy.

mamp 15y ago
So the question is do you need a whole separate unit within a company to create this "innovation"? Sometimes in microsoft land "innovation" == "not reading widely enough".
- robert_nsu 15y ago
  You don't, however, I think the article is playing up the word "innovation" a bit too much. All I see is some guy (who works for Microsoft) writing a program to make his life a little easier.
  - xpaulbettsx 15y ago
    I would tend to agree actually, I always cringe at the words "grassroots" and "innovation". The Garage is all about some people who are frankly way more like the HN crowd than most inside Microsoft, trying to bring back Hacker Ethos, DIY code culture to Microsoft. If it doesn't exist, hack it out and make things more awesome. Trying to release what comes out of it externally is trickier, many of the things that come out of it just don't make sense outside of MS, but for the things that do, they should see the light of day (ideally, as Open Source, but that's trickier). The point is, there are folks inside Microsoft who Get It, and they're trying to turn the battleship around, even if it seems like small beans to the rest of the world. Whether they are successful or not will determine whether anyone will care about Microsoft in ten years. (Disclaimer: I'm one of the people who was on the Garage Council)
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- xpaulbettsx 15y ago
  The Garage is a community, not a paid group (sometimes this isn't clear to folks outside of MS). The point you should take from this news though, is that Microsoft is now helping its developers release their projects they hack on in their spare time as Microsoft, if they meet the quality bars as well as being popular / useful enough inside Microsoft.
  - drivebyacct2 15y ago
    This is my precise issue with Microsoft today. People rush to use Entity Framework, despite more featureful community projects that are better tested and have a wide base of users. There is a poor or nonexistent community surrounding many of the Microsoft technologies. The fact that community projects targeting Microsoft properties have to be released with Microsoft's control and branding is very disappointing.
    - xpaulbettsx 15y ago
      I have no idea what you're trying to tell me. How is EF related to developers working on side projects?
      - drivebyacct2 15y ago
        Sorry, I took "The Garage is a community" to mean non-Microsoft employees. More to that apology, a re-read of your comment leaves me wondering just what I was thinking. Alas, I'll continue with my thoughts; feel free to ignore them or consider them OT; I apologize. My point might be summarized or expressed in a different way. I worked with .NET for the last 12 months and I can remember (just off the top of my head) 4 distinct issues that were trivial to fix but where not documented or described anywhere. They were weeks of work. On the other hand, I'm working with non-Microsoft tools and languages now, and I've had more than three of these scale of issues resolved in literally less than a minute in an IRC channel, and if not, in a tweet, or a forum post. My joke is that if Google/Binging is not productive in a .NET technology/tool/etc, my next best hope is posting on a forum with ridiculously buggy forum-software, and waiting two weeks for a response. There have been more than one post about this phenomena on HN as well. To be clear, I don't necessarily think this is a "Microsoft problem", I'm just not sure why the tactics and resources available for more open or community-based projects are so vastly different than the .NET/Azure/Windows scene (again, in my experience).
- Jacob4u2 15y ago
  I don't think the "Garage" is necessarily a separate unit. > “The Garage is open to anyone, which means we have people from all over the company working together. The Garage provides support through Garage Weeks, Science Fairs, free hosting, and a worldwide community to help you build things you wouldn’t be able to accomplish on your own,” Hawkins said." - http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/Features/2011/aug11/08-19Garage.mspx http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/Features/2011/aug11/08-19... I'll leave the troll bait "'Innovation == not reading widely enough'" statement alone even though I'm severely tempted to waste my time on that.
  - mamp 15y ago
    Fair enough (shamefully a bit bored and trying to create my own entertainment...). Must be slow news day on HN if this is on the front page.
buff-a 15y ago
The ability to drag files or log in once hardly makes up for the fact that I have three computers and only one of them runs Windows. What’s more, I can move files between the 2 computers simply by dragging them from one desktop to another I can drag files from my PC to my Mac (or other PCs) using two folders on the PCs desktop without any extra software. EDIT: Removed sarcasm.
snow_mac 15y ago
Yes. But Garage probably stole the idea. http://synergy-foss.org/pm/issues/47 http://synergy-foss.org/pm/issues/47 Synergy isn't very developed but they do have an extensive roadmap, which Microsoft seems to have copied and implemented. This doesn't make them innovative, just coping a good idea. Maybe if this run on OS X I'd use it, but I'll stick to my separate Mouse/Keyboards for now. Btw, back in the day, I did love Synergy.
- xpaulbettsx 15y ago
  Synergy's been around for years and is still difficult to use. Ideas that don't have good execution aren't worth anything to users.
  - marshray 15y ago
    Sure, but don't go around acting like you innovated the thing. The MS blog post doesn't even acknowledge the existence of the other projects that have gone before. Given the $B++ MS has sunk into Windows development over the years it seems a little embarrassing for them to bragging about ripping off Synergy (and adding file transfer and daily phone-home to Bing). Actually, I consider the lack of file transfer and Bing integration bonus security features.
  - crocowhile 15y ago
    Maybe a bit of competition will help synergy gain momentum again: http://synergy-foss.org/pm/issues/2987 http://synergy-foss.org/pm/issues/2987
- snow_mac 15y ago
  Why a down vote on this? It's not spammy!
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
leif 15y ago
teleport for mac has file and clipboard synchronization logging in though, no
nhebb 15y ago
> In addition to the file movement features, Mouse Without Borders also allows the user to log onto all the PCs linked together by the program via just one PC. That's the big one. I use a commercial tool (MaxiVista) right now, and I've used Synergy in the past (buggy). The drawback of both is that you need a separate keyboard for each system to log in, and then you can use the software as a KVM. If Mouse Without Borders allows you to log into a separate computer, then it adds real value above the others.
- StavrosK 15y ago
  No you don't. I have a separate PC next to my desktop, and it doesn't have anything connected to it but the screen. I run synergy as a service so it's ready to connect as soon as it boots up. It's not single sign on, but it's very handy.
  - nhebb 15y ago
    I never got that to work on a pair of Vista / XP systems. The target system had several password protected user profiles. I needed to have a keyboard on the target system to do the login, and then Synergy would launch after the user logged in.
    - StavrosK 15y ago
      I had problems too, but it somehow worked in the end. I think I used synergy+.
      - joelhaasnoot 15y ago
        Synergy+ is still awfull and hasn't been updated in years. The only benefit? It works well cross platform. I've succesfully had Linux/Mac/Windows sharing keyboard/mouse.
        StavrosK 15y ago
        I agree, but I need to share my mouse between my Ubuntu and Windows PCs, so that's the only solution I know of.

mamp 15y ago

So the question is do you need a whole separate unit within a company to create this "innovation"? Sometimes in microsoft land "innovation" == "not reading widely enough".

robert_nsu 15y ago
You don't, however, I think the article is playing up the word "innovation" a bit too much. All I see is some guy (who works for Microsoft) writing a program to make his life a little easier.
- xpaulbettsx 15y ago
  I would tend to agree actually, I always cringe at the words "grassroots" and "innovation". The Garage is all about some people who are frankly way more like the HN crowd than most inside Microsoft, trying to bring back Hacker Ethos, DIY code culture to Microsoft. If it doesn't exist, hack it out and make things more awesome. Trying to release what comes out of it externally is trickier, many of the things that come out of it just don't make sense outside of MS, but for the things that do, they should see the light of day (ideally, as Open Source, but that's trickier). The point is, there are folks inside Microsoft who Get It, and they're trying to turn the battleship around, even if it seems like small beans to the rest of the world. Whether they are successful or not will determine whether anyone will care about Microsoft in ten years. (Disclaimer: I'm one of the people who was on the Garage Council)
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
xpaulbettsx 15y ago
The Garage is a community, not a paid group (sometimes this isn't clear to folks outside of MS). The point you should take from this news though, is that Microsoft is now helping its developers release their projects they hack on in their spare time as Microsoft, if they meet the quality bars as well as being popular / useful enough inside Microsoft.
- drivebyacct2 15y ago
  This is my precise issue with Microsoft today. People rush to use Entity Framework, despite more featureful community projects that are better tested and have a wide base of users. There is a poor or nonexistent community surrounding many of the Microsoft technologies. The fact that community projects targeting Microsoft properties have to be released with Microsoft's control and branding is very disappointing.
  - xpaulbettsx 15y ago
    I have no idea what you're trying to tell me. How is EF related to developers working on side projects?
    - drivebyacct2 15y ago
      Sorry, I took "The Garage is a community" to mean non-Microsoft employees. More to that apology, a re-read of your comment leaves me wondering just what I was thinking. Alas, I'll continue with my thoughts; feel free to ignore them or consider them OT; I apologize. My point might be summarized or expressed in a different way. I worked with .NET for the last 12 months and I can remember (just off the top of my head) 4 distinct issues that were trivial to fix but where not documented or described anywhere. They were weeks of work. On the other hand, I'm working with non-Microsoft tools and languages now, and I've had more than three of these scale of issues resolved in literally less than a minute in an IRC channel, and if not, in a tweet, or a forum post. My joke is that if Google/Binging is not productive in a .NET technology/tool/etc, my next best hope is posting on a forum with ridiculously buggy forum-software, and waiting two weeks for a response. There have been more than one post about this phenomena on HN as well. To be clear, I don't necessarily think this is a "Microsoft problem", I'm just not sure why the tactics and resources available for more open or community-based projects are so vastly different than the .NET/Azure/Windows scene (again, in my experience).
Jacob4u2 15y ago
I don't think the "Garage" is necessarily a separate unit. > “The Garage is open to anyone, which means we have people from all over the company working together. The Garage provides support through Garage Weeks, Science Fairs, free hosting, and a worldwide community to help you build things you wouldn’t be able to accomplish on your own,” Hawkins said." - http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/Features/2011/aug11/08-19Garage.mspx http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/Features/2011/aug11/08-19... I'll leave the troll bait "'Innovation == not reading widely enough'" statement alone even though I'm severely tempted to waste my time on that.
- mamp 15y ago
  Fair enough (shamefully a bit bored and trying to create my own entertainment...). Must be slow news day on HN if this is on the front page.

buff-a 15y ago

The ability to drag files or log in once hardly makes up for the fact that I have three computers and only one of them runs Windows. What’s more, I can move files between the 2 computers simply by dragging them from one desktop to another I can drag files from my PC to my Mac (or other PCs) using two folders on the PCs desktop without any extra software. EDIT: Removed sarcasm.

snow_mac 15y ago

Yes. But Garage probably stole the idea. http://synergy-foss.org/pm/issues/47 http://synergy-foss.org/pm/issues/47 Synergy isn't very developed but they do have an extensive roadmap, which Microsoft seems to have copied and implemented. This doesn't make them innovative, just coping a good idea. Maybe if this run on OS X I'd use it, but I'll stick to my separate Mouse/Keyboards for now. Btw, back in the day, I did love Synergy.

xpaulbettsx 15y ago
Synergy's been around for years and is still difficult to use. Ideas that don't have good execution aren't worth anything to users.
- marshray 15y ago
  Sure, but don't go around acting like you innovated the thing. The MS blog post doesn't even acknowledge the existence of the other projects that have gone before. Given the $B++ MS has sunk into Windows development over the years it seems a little embarrassing for them to bragging about ripping off Synergy (and adding file transfer and daily phone-home to Bing). Actually, I consider the lack of file transfer and Bing integration bonus security features.
- crocowhile 15y ago
  Maybe a bit of competition will help synergy gain momentum again: http://synergy-foss.org/pm/issues/2987 http://synergy-foss.org/pm/issues/2987
snow_mac 15y ago
Why a down vote on this? It's not spammy!
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]

leif 15y ago

teleport for mac has file and clipboard synchronization logging in though, no

nhebb 15y ago

> In addition to the file movement features, Mouse Without Borders also allows the user to log onto all the PCs linked together by the program via just one PC. That's the big one. I use a commercial tool (MaxiVista) right now, and I've used Synergy in the past (buggy). The drawback of both is that you need a separate keyboard for each system to log in, and then you can use the software as a KVM. If Mouse Without Borders allows you to log into a separate computer, then it adds real value above the others.

StavrosK 15y ago
No you don't. I have a separate PC next to my desktop, and it doesn't have anything connected to it but the screen. I run synergy as a service so it's ready to connect as soon as it boots up. It's not single sign on, but it's very handy.
- nhebb 15y ago
  I never got that to work on a pair of Vista / XP systems. The target system had several password protected user profiles. I needed to have a keyboard on the target system to do the login, and then Synergy would launch after the user logged in.
  - StavrosK 15y ago
    I had problems too, but it somehow worked in the end. I think I used synergy+.
    - joelhaasnoot 15y ago
      Synergy+ is still awfull and hasn't been updated in years. The only benefit? It works well cross platform. I've succesfully had Linux/Mac/Windows sharing keyboard/mouse.
      - StavrosK 15y ago
        I agree, but I need to share my mouse between my Ubuntu and Windows PCs, so that's the only solution I know of.