Personal computing discussed
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JBI wrote:(What's the point of having VESA mounting holes if you can't take the stand off? WTF.)
Chrispy_ wrote:I sell my old screens on ebay to fund every-nicer single primary screens, but that's probably because if I use a second screen I usually want it to be a separate device altogether, hence the switch from multiple screens to a desktop + laptop simultaneously - Not far off using a KVM but still with added advantages.
Chrispy_ wrote:JBI wrote:(What's the point of having VESA mounting holes if you can't take the stand off? WTF.)
Thin client or NUC attached to the back, since it's a business monitor that's the most likely use for VESA mounts.
just brew it! wrote:When did VESA-mount thin clients/NUCs become a thing? Never paid much attention to that segment of the market since I've never used one.
drfish wrote:I approve.
Nice mouse BTW.
Usacomp2k3 wrote:I was hoping usb3 would give enough bandwidth for a 1080p video card for static or semi- static text like console windows or web pages without video.
End User wrote:What about simplifying things by replacing those old displays with a single current gen larger/higher res display? Combine that with multiple desktops (OS) and a VNC type solution (ditching KVM) and you would have a much cleaner/functional solution:
http://www.microcenter.com/product/4679 ... ay_Monitor
just brew it! wrote:You can never have too much screen real estate, right? I had already put one of my old 17" LCD monitors to use as a second head, but there was another one sitting in the corner unused. Then I realized that: A) I still had an unused HDMI port on my GPU; and B) although the extra display is analog VGA only, I can get cheap active HDMI-to-VGA converters on Amazon for $10 (shipped).
ludi wrote:just brew it! wrote:You can never have too much screen real estate, right? I had already put one of my old 17" LCD monitors to use as a second head, but there was another one sitting in the corner unused. Then I realized that: A) I still had an unused HDMI port on my GPU; and B) although the extra display is analog VGA only, I can get cheap active HDMI-to-VGA converters on Amazon for $10 (shipped).
I wish you lived closer. I've got a 19" SyncMaster 940bx sitting in the corner. In a curious reversal of fortune, the VGA input is borked, but the DVI works fine. I just don't have any use for it at the moment.
just brew it! wrote:I'm probably better off with the existing 17" ones. The DPI is very close to that of my primary display (which makes the extended desktop functionality work well), and a 19" would not get me any more pixels (it would just take up more space).
just brew it! wrote:That's 30x what I paid for my solution.
just brew it! wrote:Having a physical connection from the system to the display is useful (or even essential) in many cases, unless you've got all stable production systems that you almost never change anything on.
just brew it! wrote:VNC-like solutions tend to be laggy, don't always work well (or lose functionality) when going across platforms (I need to deal with both Linux and OS X here, and likely a Win10 box in the near future too), and tend to not handle things that require GPU acceleration (like motion video) well.
just brew it! wrote:I question whether it would be cleaner, and disagree outright that it would be more functional.
just brew it! wrote:You're also making an unjustified assumption that everything handles high-DPI displays smoothly. IME this is asking for trouble.
just brew it! wrote:I decided to see what 17" monitors go for these days. (No, I am definitely NOT thinking of buying one, this was just out of curiosity!)
End User wrote:Cost aside it makes more sense to consolidate down to one current gen display.
End User wrote:I was Mr. KVM a while back. It got to the point where I could get away with most things via network remote access. How often do you install an OS from scratch on both your work and home laptops? How often do you plan on switching the OS on your 2nd mid-tower system? Keep the KVM for fresh installs if you must but I see very little need for using it day to day.
End User wrote:I find it very useful to be able to remote control my PCs/VMs via the network from within my primary desktop.
End User wrote:Many solutions allow for data transfer between environments which is a nice option to have.
End User wrote:I don't understand. What do you mean by high-DPI? How would that impact a remote network session?
just brew it! wrote:End User wrote:Cost aside it makes more sense to consolidate down to one current gen display.
Many people do not live in this "cost is no object" universe of yours, and/or have other things they would rather spend their hard-earned cash on.
just brew it! wrote:Most remote access tasks fall into one of two categories: A) things that can be done effectively via a remote SSH session; or B) things that work better with a native display.
just brew it! wrote:End User wrote:I don't understand. What do you mean by high-DPI? How would that impact a remote network session?
GUI sessions are problematic unless some sort of upscaling is supported. I have a display similar to the one you linked at work; anything that isn't DPI-aware is too tiny to be usable.
End User wrote:A 27" 2560x1440 display has a relatively low DPI of 108.79 so remoting into a system with a 17" 1280x1024 display (96.42 PPI) is close enough to make very little difference. My work MacBook Pro has a DPI of 220.53 (I use it a native) and even with that high a DPI I don't have a problem when viewing the desktops of remote systems (ones with substantially lower resolutions).
Just Brew It wrote:You're making an unjustified assumption that everything handles high-DPI displays smoothly
Chrispy_ wrote:Just Brew It wrote:You're making an unjustified assumption that everything handles high-DPI displays smoothly
Nothing handles high-DPI smoothly. ...
just brew it! wrote:You can never have too much screen real estate, right? I had already put one of my old 17" LCD monitors to use as a second head, but there was another one sitting in the corner unused. Then I realized that: A) I still had an unused HDMI port on my GPU; and B) although the extra display is analog VGA only, I can get cheap active HDMI-to-VGA converters on Amazon for $10 (shipped).
Behold:
The just-added one is the one hanging from the shelving unit. No, I didn't use a VESA mount; although the monitor has the holes for it, the stand is not removable. (What's the point of having VESA mounting holes if you can't take the stand off? WTF.) Anyhow, I just zip-tied the base of the stand to the wire shelving to keep the display from falling. Ghetto, but it works, and the zip ties aren't visible from the front.
One minor annoyance I've encountered that I haven't found a complete fix for so far is that having a toolbar (a.k.a. "panel" in KDE-speak) at the top of the main display when there's another display above it seems to confuse the window manager. When launching an application, KDE sometimes sizes/positions the new window with its title bar obscured by the panel. Sometimes the title bar of the window extends onto the upper monitor instead, and the application's menu is obscured by the panel -- even more annoying! :evil:
There are some window manager settings which are supposed to force KDE to remember the last position and size of an application, but this does not seem to work consistently. I'm sure there's a fix for this somewhere in KDE's 5,245 different display manager settings, but figuring out which one(s) it is is like a demented geeky treasure hunt.
anotherengineer wrote:And I thought my wife was a pack-rat/hoarder
Chrispy_ wrote:My old man has the same difficulty as you in changing focal distance, he's fast approaching 80 so it's entirely expected though.
just brew it! wrote:I have an old 4-port analog KVM sitting in the junk pile, so I theoretically could make one of the secondary displays switchable too... it would have to be via the pushbuttons on the KVM though (no keyboard hotkeys) since the keyboard would continue to run through the other KVM.