(OT?) KVM for Mac and PC?

Cromulent

Cromulent

Cromulent

Soldato
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I need a cheap PC for some programming things, and I've been trying to think of ways to do what I want. Initially, I thought about running the PC without a mouse, keyboard or monitor and accessing it over the network, but I think I'd prefer to use it directly.

Now with my Mac Studio set up, I have a Magic Keyboard full size with Touch ID (wireless), a Logitech G502 Hero mouse, and three monitors (one connected via HDMI and two connected via USB-C to DisplayPort). Is there some bit of hardware that would make it easy to switch between my Mac and a PC? I don't have much desk space, so size is an issue.

Can anyone point me in the right direction, please?
 
Cromulent said:
I need a cheap PC for some programming things, and I've been trying to think of ways to do what I want. Initially, I thought about running the PC without a mouse, keyboard or monitor and accessing it over the network, but I think I'd prefer to use it directly.

Now with my Mac Studio set up, I have a Magic Keyboard full size with Touch ID (wireless), a Logitech G502 Hero mouse, and three monitors (one connected via HDMI and two connected via USB-C to DisplayPort). Is there some bit of hardware that would make it easy to switch between my Mac and a PC? I don't have much desk space, so size is an issue.

Can anyone point me in the right direction, please?
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Do you actually need a separate pc?

Could you get away with something like parallels and run a virtual install on your mac studio, windows on arm is officially supported now and it looks like parallels supports fedora too.


Logitech also has their own version of the synergy software, although not sure it's supported on linux distros.
 
lsg1r said:
Do you actually need a separate pc?

Could you get away with something like parallels and run a virtual install on your mac studio, windows on arm is officially supported now and it looks like parallels supports fedora too.


Logitech also has their own version of the synergy software, although not sure it's supported on linux distros.
Click to expand...
This is a tough question. I'll try and answer.

The problem I have is I do web dev. Now that is fine on the Mac Studio, but if I want to simulate deploying it into production, I use VMWare Fusion Pro 13 and have Fedora 37 installed in a VM. The problem is that I have to run the AArch64 version of Fedora whilst the server I'll be uploading to when I upload the site will be running on x86_64. If the change between architectures causes subtle bugs, I won't know until I've pushed the website into production, which is probably bad. Thus I thought if I got an x86_64 machine, I'd be able to do more extensive testing before pushing to production. The other option is to find a cloud host that offers AArch64 virtual machines.
 
Cromulent said:
This is a tough question. I'll try and answer.

The problem I have is I do web dev. Now that is fine on the Mac Studio, but if I want to simulate deploying it into production, I use VMWare Fusion Pro 13 and have Fedora 37 installed in a VM. The problem is that I have to run the AArch64 version of Fedora whilst the server I'll be uploading to when I upload the site will be running on x86_64. If the change between architectures causes subtle bugs, I won't know until I've pushed the website into production, which is probably bad. Thus I thought if I got an x86_64 machine, I'd be able to do more extensive testing before pushing to production. The other option is to find a cloud host that offers AArch64 virtual machines.
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ok fair enough makes sense. Remote desktop is probably the least hassle but other options for you are...

What screens do you run, do any of them have a built in kvm?

Does at least one of them have a spare video input, if yes you could look at a usb keyboard/mouse switch... might be an issue for the wireless keyboard (no dongle), so you might need to consider a change of keyboard. Something like UGREEN USB 3.0 Switch 4 Port USB Switch Selector 5Gbps High-Speed Peripheral Sharing Switcher for 2 Computer (can't link for obvious reasons).

Alternatively, if you're prepared to change your keyboard/mouse (shame yours isn't wireless) logitech have some devices which can support more than one device with a press of a button and a dongle/bluetooth in each machine.... my mx3 master does it for example but again not sure they fully support fedora.

I'm guessing you've got the pc side figured out...but if not, what about just grabbing a laptop, it would save a lot of issues imo
 
Personally, I’d just use CI and a cheap x86 cloud host. What tech stack are you using? Most are pretty good for ARM64 compatibility.

Edit - I host stuff on ARM64 stuff in AWS to avoid faffing.
 
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lsg1r said:
I'm guessing you've got the pc side figured out...but if not, what about just grabbing a laptop, it would save a lot of issues imo
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A laptop would be good. I think Lenovo Thinkpads are well-regarded for Linux? Open to options but want to keep the price down if possible. Any laptop which works well with Fedora would be good for me.
 
Cromulent said:
A laptop would be good. I think Lenovo Thinkpads are well-regarded for Linux? Open to options but want to keep the price down if possible. Any laptop which works well with Fedora would be good for me.
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Can't suggest any laptop directly I'm afraid but yeah I have heard thinkpads are pretty good with linux, might even be able to buy it wth linux.

I know Dell used to support ubuntu pretty heavily and from what I've seen reading up about unraid (which is based on linux) intel seems to be 'better supported' out of the box than amd.

Is there a fedora forum or anything where you could ask for laptop suggestions? Obviously there's the linux/open source section here.


Quick google for fedora laptop popped up the below... while I wouldn't necessarily buy the suggested laptops it might help with finding what is supported etc.
laptopwithlinux.com

Want to buy a Fedora laptop? Laptops with Fedora Linux pre-installed

Want to buy a Fedora Linux laptop? The best laptops with Fedora Workstation 40 preinstalled. Choose open-source! Free shipping within EU & UK!
laptopwithlinux.com laptopwithlinux.com

One laptop that definitely works with fedora is the one from frame.work (ltt linus invested in it, fully repairable etc), starts around £1k so maybe a bit much price wise
guides.frame.work

Fedora 37 Installation on the Framework Laptop 13

How to install Fedora 37 Linux on a Framework Laptop 13.
guides.frame.work guides.frame.work
 
lsg1r said:
Can't suggest any laptop directly I'm afraid but yeah I have heard thinkpads are pretty good with linux, might even be able to buy it wth linux.

I know Dell used to support ubuntu pretty heavily and from what I've seen reading up about unraid (which is based on linux) intel seems to be 'better supported' out of the box than amd.

Is there a fedora forum or anything where you could ask for laptop suggestions? Obviously there's the linux/open source section here.


Quick google for fedora laptop popped up the below... while I wouldn't necessarily buy the suggested laptops it might help with finding what is supported etc.
laptopwithlinux.com

Want to buy a Fedora laptop? Laptops with Fedora Linux pre-installed

Want to buy a Fedora Linux laptop? The best laptops with Fedora Workstation 40 preinstalled. Choose open-source! Free shipping within EU & UK!
laptopwithlinux.com laptopwithlinux.com

One laptop that definitely works with fedora is the one from frame.work (ltt linus invested in it, fully repairable etc), starts around £1k so maybe a bit much price wise
guides.frame.work

Fedora 37 Installation on the Framework Laptop 13

How to install Fedora 37 Linux on a Framework Laptop 13.
guides.frame.work guides.frame.work
Click to expand...
Awesome! Thank you. I'll ask about laptops of the Fedora Reddit.
 
Triple monitor KVM switches are a thing, but the bluetooth keyboard will be tricky to handle. If you like the Mac style keyboard. Matias make a very similar model that connects via USB.
 
Cromulent said:
I can use a lightning to USB-C cable for the keyboard.
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You might want to go with lightning to USB-A, as most KVM switches have USB-A ports. ATEN, Startech, IOGEAR, all have suitable units with DP ports. If you go for HDMI ports you might find a cheaper option. Look into CKLau.

I personally used a dual monitor dual-link DVI KVM to switch between my Mac and Linux Workstation for a while with a pair of thunderbolt docks. Was a bit of a faff, to get all the correct cables, but once I had it working it was solid. Since I switched to WFH 100% of the time, I upgraded my setup a bit, and now have multiple dedicated monitors for my frequently used machines, and just switch the keyboard and mouse with a USB switcher. This combined with PIP on my main 28" 4K display works well for my requirements, but I'm still hanging on to my IOGEAR KVM as no doubt it will be useful again in the future!
 
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