I love dual monitors. I love the increased productivity they give me; not having to cmd+tab or exposé between windows when I’m looking something up, or being able to keep my eye on IRC or an IM conversation simply by flicking my eyes across rather than having to distract myself with changing windows. I also love the increased productivity using a Mac gives me; the OS really is a joy to use day to day - it’s functional, elegant, fun, and relaxing: I don’t find myself ever fighting with the operating system and its applications like I do with Linux, and sometimes Windows.

You can probably guess what comes next.

When I first got my MacBook, it was with the intention of fulfilling my idea of segmenting computer use (something I need to write about in the future, but simply: do tasks on computers/OSes that suit those tasks), and it was to fulfill the task of every day use: browsing the web, checking emails, doing a bit of coding or design, chatting on MSN, and so on. And it worked fine for a while, but I found myself wanting a desktop - wanting my dual monitors, and a proper keyboard, and a proper mouse, and not feel like I’m doing exactly what I hate people doing: using a laptop for no good reason.

I really wanted to combine Mac OS with a desktop. I started looking at what I could get on a limited budget, a Hackintosh or a Mac Mini. The Mac Mini is due a refresh, and do I really need another PC? x5315 came up with the ultimate answer - a display adaptor for my Macbook, which I then appended with an Apple Keyboard.

So now I am in productivity heaven. I have my dual screen, and I have my Mac OS. But I decided to go one stage further. I’d previously dual-screened my Linux workstation when I had resorted to that for my desktop+dual screen fix, and didn’t want to let that go to waste. So I have a quadruple monitor workspace environment, where 2 monitors are my MacBook, and two are C-Cube (my Linux workstation).

What neatly ties this altogether, is Synergy.

Synergy is a little known about (it seems) application, which allows you to share a single keyboard and mouse (and clipboard) across multiple computers via a local network, effectively emulating a multi-monitor situation across multiple host’s (and platforms). So although only 2 monitors are connected to my MacBook, when I move the mouse to the rightmost edge, it appears to move the mouse onto the leftmost edge of C-Cube’s monitors, exactly how it would function if they were all hooked up. If you have a set up similar to mine, you should definitely check this program out. It’s available for Windows, Mac, and Linux (the Mac version is a little quirky, but fully functional in server and client mode).

So how is my productivity now? Well, I must admit the rightmost monitor is off most of the time, as I simply don’t need that much space. But having so many monitors is excellent for when I am NX’d