When I am meeting with someone, I frequently find the need to bring up
something on the computer. At which point they come round behind my desk
and looks over my shoulder and soon needs to type something, so we swap places.
We might swap place a few times. It's tedious.

I am interested in a desktop system that could be controlled by two
people simultaneously. Multiple monitors are easily achieved with modern
graphics cards.  With USB, it is also not difficult for two mice and two
keyboards to plug into a single computer. But the multiple input devices
compete for the same "focus". What is lacking is multiple mouse cursors
and multiple focus on a single desktop. I would like for both myself and
my colleague to be able to edit different windows side-by-side,
simultaneously, on the same desktop. We should also be able to trade
windows (so that I can edit his and he can edit mine) at will.


Does software to achieve this goal exist on mac, windows, or Linux?

Hi Dale,

Thanks for your comment. I have used VNC a bit, It's an excellent
application but as you pointed out, it doesn't quite do what I'm
looking for. It allows two different keyboards/mice to control the
same cursor. You can also accomplish this by plugging multiple USB
keyboards/mice into the same computer. The computer listens to both
sets of input devices, but they both control the same cursor.

What I'm wondering is whether it is possible to have two (or more)
cursors on a single desktop controlled by separate input devices.

Thanks again,
-Adam

I believe that what you are looking for is only supported by specific
applications. For more information on this, do a seach for information
on "Single Display Groupware." Universal (operating system-wide)
support for multiple input devices (specifically, support for multiple
cursors, keybord foci, input carets), would require significant
changes both at the application and operating system level.

If you're editing straight text files, there is another solution. It
requires two computers, but it allows multiple people to interactively
work on the same file at the same time. The application is called
SubEthaEdit, and it's for MacOS X only. It's free and lightweight, and
uses Apple's Rendezvous technology to make setting up the editing
session a breeze. It's tailored to software development but it works
just great for editing any kind of text file.

SubEthaEdit's Home Page:
http://www.codingmonkeys.de/subethaedit/index.html

There may be similar solutions for Windows and Linux. For more
information, look for "Extreme Programming."