I use Windows and Linux equally and I need a native system for both, and I’m deciding if I’m going to to cram a KVM cable monster under my desk, or swim through the RDP molasses. It struck me - why don’t we have the ability to plug the HDMI/DisplayPort out of one computer into a kind of video-in on another computer , and display that signal in a window on the receiver? The receiving video-in card would appear as monitor device to the sender. For added convenience, pass through some USB cables so you can send keyboard and mouse signals the opposite way, when said window is focused. Come in, it would be waaaay more elegant than cramming an unruly KVM octopus behind your work rigs.
I don’t suppose there’s someone here with mad hardware chops who could make that happen? I just hate cables. Please, make them stop.
A second monitor and keyboard / mouse are out of the question?
The world is not much in demand for such solutions … but you can buy a video card with “in” which will capture the signal from hdmi / dvi / dp and allow you to display the image in real time in some friendly window. You can solve the mouse and keyboard with the help of Software KVM and deciding that one PC will be the master always up with the physical key / mou.
So in short, an interactive stream bypassing the network, where you just watch the video from the second pc and key / mou send on the network.
What video capture card I don’t know … a lot depends on the $ you will probably find something on the market yourself.
For mouse and keyboard you can use maybe Synergy or Multiplicity KVM.
Another approach can be PC-over-IP products from Teradici. And a philosophy based on a central point based on PCoIP zero clients
beware of the heavy unavoidable input lag added by this at least 16ms+ for 60 HZ and i’m very generous here it’s nearly for sure massively more.
and USB capture cards are more often then not lossy too.
I use a KVM thingie, 6 display port cables and 6 USB cables and power, and I’m not even using audio on it. But I’m very happy, no additional input lag that I can notice and no fiddling around. It’s definitely a cable nest, but maybe you can get right length cables.
In my recent hunt for a new monitor, I noticed some BenQ and Dell monitors have built-in kvms. If you only need to switch 1 monitor, and aren’t after an expensive professional monitor monster, it might be the way to go.
This would be my preferred route if I knew I had it under control - I’ve gotten as far as booting my Windows disk up inside of Fedora using Qemu, still trying to get my head around GPU and USB passthrough. I use several low-latency USB devices on Windows, and often have long “creative” spates (music making or digital painting) when I don’t have the energy to troublefix quirks.
I agree this makes the most practical sense, but isn’t much fun!
So many posts here from folks that want to run Linux on the “desktop” but then spend every effort to forward the GPU, USB, sound, etc to a Windows VM. Seems to me to make more sense if Windows is so important, run it on the “desktop” and a Linux VM to dabble around with.