The docking station sits on my server rack – entirely out of my way – and now when I’m home I just place my laptop on the docking station (with the lid closed) and use Remote Desktop Connection to access that machine from my mac. Works well since the laptop’s display resolution is an intolerable 1024×768.

So now my second laptop isn’t on my desk at all and is no longer a source of clutter. Thanks again to all who offered solutions.

1. One laptop is a Windows laptop that belongs to the office. The other is my personal Mac. I already run Parallels on the Mac, but for legal/liability reasons, I need to keep work stuff on the work machine.

2. I actually prefer the laptop screen because of it’s tiny footprint. My desk faces the door and I can’t stand having a big ol’ monitor in front of my face blocking my view of the door. That makes a KVM solution useless (I’m not familiar with Synergy – yet).

3. When I’m using one laptop, I think I’d like to close the other and have it set aside entirely. That said, if remoting in from my home machine to my work machine is reasonably performant, then maybe that’s a reasonable solution.

Thanks again to everyone.

It also gives you a shared clipboard if I remember correctly.

For what it’s worth, I’m going to be so glad to finally get a MBP and use Parallels… having a Windows machine just for testing websites practically defines “clutter.”

I think Big Brother is here.

But I am glad to have found your blog. I despise clutter too.

At home, I have a Linux laptop. In the basement I have a Mac and a linux box running VMware server. I use VNC to get into the mac. It even goes through the login. I have XP Pro running inside VMware server on the linux box. I RDP into that. VNC doesn’t let you get to the login screen in XP Home.

RDP is nice because you get cut&paste. You should be able to redirect sound as well. A KVM won’t let you cut & paste.

How about VMware Fusion, Parallels or something similar on the Macintosh?

I would recommend looking into Synergy. I use a similar, Mac only solution for my setup: Teleport.

My wireless mouse & keyboard are connected to my iMac on my home desk. When I plug in my MacBook (on laptop stand with external monitor) next to it, I’m able to move the mouse cursor over to the laptop screen and now I’m in control of the MacBook. Move the cursor back to the iMac, I’m controlling it.

Then I bring the laptop to the office, drop on the desk next to the MacPro monitor and do the same thing there!

In addition, I find that Teleport sends _all_ keyboard commands to the active host (unlike VNC solutions). So Expose, Quicksilver, etc. all work seamlessly, regardless of which system I’m controlling.

Hope this helps.

I prefer the BootCamp method as the only time I use Windoze is when I have a specific thing to do in one of the few Windoze only apps that I use, and this creates sort of an ultra productivity environment. No mail, IM, RSS, etc… distractions. Boot up and get it done!

I think that if I were in what sounds to be your situation, I would just use the MBP and keep only the Windoze files I need for the week on the Mac. Use a half hour or so on Mon and Fri to transfer/backup/archive to the Dell, and leave it on a shelf or something the rest of the week.

Hope that is helpful or at least somthing to think about. Uncluttering starts with Reduction, IMHO.

For your situation, you could do something similar. Sit the two laptops side by side, and use synergy to control them both. This eliminates any kvm hardware or additional wires between the machines.

Hope that helps.