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If I understand you correctly, you have a Win7 laptop and a MacBook that
you would like to access continually though out the day. You only want one
large monitor to share between the two systems. And you are comfortable
with switching. You don't want to run Mac OSX and Win7 on the same laptop,
because they are already discrete systems.
If my evaluation is correct, then you should use a KVM switch to share a
common keyboard, mouse, and monitor with both machines. Each machine would
constantly be running, but you would control each machine separately.
If your Win7 laptop is needed only for email and occasional work, then
there are different options.
For instance, you mentioned Synergy, an excellent program that connects
multiple machines together over a network. A different instance needs to
run on each machine so they can talk to each other. Windows is easier to
set up than Mac or *Nix. I never used a GUI with my Mac.
However, because Synergy addresses the issue of controlling multiple
machines, each machine needs to be set up with a monitor (or you could
share the monitor using the monitor's different inputs or a KVM switch. The
benefit is of you need to copy text between machines, Synergy lets you do
that.
The third option of using Remote Desktop (There is a Microsoft client for
Mac) means you would log into your Win7 machine when you wanted to see
what's happening. However you control your Mac is what you would use to
control your Win7 machine.
Which method would you prefer to work?
-Tony
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