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Desktop as monitor?
- Thread starter slotcarbob
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In reality, it's not terribly user friendly, fast or efficient though. Hopefully it'll be good enough. 
In reality, it's not terribly user friendly, fast or efficient though. Hopefully it'll be good enough.
Also, as far as I know it only mirrors your desktop, so it's not so much a second monitor as a larger duplicate of the first.
Screen Recycler
There's a goofy utility called "ScreenRecycler" that uses the VNC protocol to extend your desktop. Basically, you run the software as a server on your 'main' Mac, and run any VNC client software on the 'spare' computer (Mac, Windows, Linux, PalmOS, whatever,) and ScreenRecycler makes the connected computer appear as an extra monitor in the Displays preference pane.
Beware, though, even over a 100Mbit Ethernet or FireWire 400 connection, it won't be as fast as the demo on their website shows. I don't have two Gigabit machines to test with, but based on the speed of a FireWire 400 connection, I still wouldn't expect it to be as smooth as they show. (Playing a 320x240 movie, I get MAYBE 1 frame per second over FireWire.) But, looking at their website now, they specifically mention that my VNC client of choice is slow. I may have to try a different client. AND, it looks like newer releases are faster. I'll have to download and try it again!
edit/update: Wow, yeah. Running the latest version of ScreenRecycler, and running VNCThing instead of Chicken of the VNC on the client makes a world of difference. It's actually usable now! And, I just realized I'm only running over 802.11g, not even 100 Megabit Ethernet, so this is incredible! Movies aren't perfect, but they are watchable, even over the slower wireless connection!
I'm going to have to try this over a FireWire connection!
There's a goofy utility called "ScreenRecycler" that uses the VNC protocol to extend your desktop. Basically, you run the software as a server on your 'main' Mac, and run any VNC client software on the 'spare' computer (Mac, Windows, Linux, PalmOS, whatever,) and ScreenRecycler makes the connected computer appear as an extra monitor in the Displays preference pane.
Beware, though, even over a 100Mbit Ethernet or FireWire 400 connection, it won't be as fast as the demo on their website shows. I don't have two Gigabit machines to test with, but based on the speed of a FireWire 400 connection, I still wouldn't expect it to be as smooth as they show. (Playing a 320x240 movie, I get MAYBE 1 frame per second over FireWire.) But, looking at their website now, they specifically mention that my VNC client of choice is slow. I may have to try a different client. AND, it looks like newer releases are faster. I'll have to download and try it again!
edit/update: Wow, yeah. Running the latest version of ScreenRecycler, and running VNCThing instead of Chicken of the VNC on the client makes a world of difference. It's actually usable now! And, I just realized I'm only running over 802.11g, not even 100 Megabit Ethernet, so this is incredible! Movies aren't perfect, but they are watchable, even over the slower wireless connection!
I'm going to have to try this over a FireWire connection!