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Install a software-only keyboard/monitor switcher
Authored by: AaronAdams on Feb 01, '05 10:05:46PM

There is nothing fallacious about my points. VNC can require either simple password protection or authentication to a directory service, nothing fallacious about that. VNC can be encrypted in a tunnel like Synergy, and probably any other traffic, nothing fallacious about that. osx2x does not require the command line and does not require the editing of text files for setup, nothing fallacious about that. VNC gives me the flexibility to remotely control the whole machine if need be, nothing fallacious about that. osx2x can connect to Linux using VNC instead of xtest, nothing fallacious about that. osx2x allows me to switch screens by simply moving the mouse pointer over to the other screen, nothing fallacious about that.

I prefer osx2x because it works well, is easy to set up, VNC is available for a number of platforms and provides additional flexibility, and it can all be secured to a degree greater than Synergy.



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Install a software-only keyboard/monitor switcher
Authored by: mephisto on Feb 02, '05 07:17:42AM

Let us try and keep this polite shall we?

Unless you tunnel through ssh, which requires the maligned command line or another program, your session is most definitely not encrypted. Even then there is no solution to this on the osx2x site, mererly warning that regardless of machine all keyboard strokes and mouse movements are passed unencrypted (under "issues"). So how would you set up a secure connection using osx2x? I think it would make a good hint in and of itself.

Also, oddly enough, stock VNC does not allow authentication via any method other than password. I checked OSXvnc and it also only has password based authentication. Finally from the osx2x web site: "Currently no authenication [sic] is used for an X11 connection, and only the password field is used for VNC authentication." So can you explain how to get authentication other than password through osx2x using VNC?

You do need to modify a text file to configure synergy, but is this such a bad thing? It is not difficult. I realize some Mac users do not like anything to do with the command line. With minimal effort a bash script file that could be clicked from finder could be created to avoid this. Or a hotkey for QuickSilver could be used, which is how I do it. For that matter, while the host requires editing a text file, the clients require no configuration at all beyond typing in the address of the host. This is not true of VNC and especially not true of xtest.

So again, to the best of my knowledge, and the documentation on the osx2x and vnc sites, you seem to be making false assumptions. I look forward to your reasoned explanations of where I was wrong.



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