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Microsoft Invents Split Screen PC
An anonymous reader writes "New technology from Microsoft Research India in Bangalore could end the waiting game in offices with limited computers. Researchers are developing software that splits a computer screen in two halves, each side with its own operating system, desktop, applications, cursor and keyboard." Mom! Timmy is on my side of the screen again!
Making you think you're crazy is a billion dollar industry.
...is a Hello Kitty theme. I'd gladly suffer it just to piss the other guy off!
"that's the dumbest fucking idea I've heard since I've been at Microsoft."
Two virtual desktops on one screen! What will they think of next?
Jetway Magic Twin MiniQ Computer
One of our favorite things on slashdot! The obligatory "This isn't news, I've been doing it for X years!" post
Dupe!
Well, sort of.
If you look at the article the whole idea seems rather silly due to extremely limited screen real estate. It would be much better to do this idea in conjunction with this Sharp TV/Monitor that was announced a while back: http://news.cnet.co.uk/monitors/0,39029684,3919085 1,00.htm
That way each user gets the full monitor but can be using the two operating systems completely separately. That way you get the same physical real estate being taken up and don't have to buy two completely different machines. Still, I don't think the idea in general is overly practical. Can you imagine sharing your cubicle with Bob the slob working right next to you all day every day?
"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." - Tennyson
Can the two OS's crash into eachother?
Researchers are developing software
They are a decade late... this has been possible for a long time.
like we didn't enough of one!
For the record, this isn't anything new. When I was at high school in the late 1980s, we used Mac II boxes with a utility that provided this exact feature. Two menu bars, two keyboards, two mice and two students using the screen at the same time, split either down the middle of the screen vertically, or across the middle of the screen horizontally.
A better feature provided by the same software allowed two separate monitors on the same machine via an extra graphics card, each with what looked like their own independent OS, but was just a dual monitor version of the above.
For the record, it was pretty clumsy when using it with just one monitor, but it did work
how the hell am I supposed to surf porn in peace at work if someone else is sharing the same monitor as me? Well, unless she's cute, I guess...
It will certainly make surfing for porn at work a bit awkward.
I'd rather have a full bottle in front of me than a full frontal lobotomy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DESQview
...I'm running AROS hosted on Linux.... wait a minute....ok, now I'm running two instances of AROS on Linux.... wait a minute... Ok now 4...now if I put each on it own workspace....hahah I have prior art for four... uh err, 5 running....
So what this is really about is trying to justify MS selling more OSs to a company than a company has hardware for.....
So quick someone patent the split computer chair that holds two people and simply say no to MS.
This was done by Microsoft, it was done in Bangalore and it is not obviously the greatest idea ever. Anyone want to bet how the comments are going to look? :)
how to split the mouse and keyboard effectively (ergonomic split keyboard?).
Otherwise, why not just use dumb terminals? Because sharing a computer jostling the person next to you is going to be a nightmare.
Not to mention the suckage of having your side of the monitor always in ultra-narrow landscape mode when most programs and OSes aren't made for that. Vertical scrolling is okay, horizontal is just plain tedious.
So, listen, we've really been working on a solution to customer complaints about the high cost of Vista licensing. So, here it is: we'll help you to afford licenses by keeping them at the same price, but offering technology that will allow you to share a computer and the screen so you can afford the licenses.
Not having a computer for every employee should make Vista financially feasible for your organization. Plus, you get to participate in the Microsoft Buddy System, Or Binary User Licensing and Limited Software/Hardware Integration Team (BULLSHIT), and you get a MS Dubloon (redeemable for t-shirts and pens) for every time you report your very close neighbor for piracy. We would recommend waiting until he or she goes on break before reporting illegal activity. They're pretty much looking at your screen the whole time otherwise.
Hey! Where are you all going? You get your own keyboard and mouse!
How is this different to running a couple of copies of Windows in VMWare?
Invented? only if you consider a second rate and late implementation an invention. Instead of sharing the same OS between two users, they had to license each half of the screen, how typical. MagicTwin did for XP what LTSP did for GNU/Linux and it actually worked. Perhaps in a world where screens cost more than the computer itself this makes sense, otherwise it's a real loser. I can imagine trying to split the average 1024 by 768 screen right down the middle and so can you. Just half your browser right now and see how well it works.
OLPC is better still. The software is all free, so you don't have to crowd everyone into a lab where they have to "share" non free junk like Bill wants. At less than $200, it may be cheaper than some screens. Everyone gets their own and gets to keep their privacy and dignity.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
I shall throw away VNC and wait for this new solution.
No need to pay for Windows licensing
No sig for you!!
You young people have it good. When I was a kid, we not only had to share one keyboard, we only had the ONE screen and had to each only use one half, or 40x12 apiece.
Dad always derided our comments by mentioning that when HE was a kid, he had to share a punched card with all seven of his sibling, so they each only got 10 characters.
Grandpa would chime in at this point about only getting to use half the dots on a morse code key, his three sisters got the other half of the dots and all the dashes.
That's approximately how I've often been using my PC for some time now - but OK, I use 2 monitors (on one dual head video card, with one virtual desktop spanning the two displays).
Main OS on the first monitor, second OS full-screen in VMWare on the other.
Does this mean I'm going to have to pay MS from now on if I want to keep doing what I've been doing all along?
What does that need dual-quad core and 8GB of ram?
A amd 4x4 or dual quad core with 4GB of ram per cpu should be good or you can buy a few lower end systems with there own os for the same price.
I'm not impressed. It's simply virtualization with a halved screen and a dedicated keyboard and mouse for each half. If you run two VMWare instances with Windows inside you're pretty close to what they have "invented".
It's not a very efficient system either. Nowadays' machines can be pretty much summed up as follows:
- Input devices (mouse, keyboard etc). Nothing is saved here.
- Memory (RAM) - nothing is saved here. Running two OSs requires twice as much RAM.
- Storage (HD etc) - nothing is save here. Ok, maybe they share the installed software, but I doubt that.
- Processor - this system actually shares that.
- Monitor - this system shares that, too.
- Other output devices - nothing is gained.
So what this system achieves is some savings on CPU (by better usage) and Monitors (by giving only half a screen to each user).
I would *much* prefer to have a smaller screen instead of sharing a larger one - you can get two 17" screens for the price of a 19".
Given that setting up and maintaining such a system *is* going to be more complex than setting up a normal system, I doubt that the savings on the processors are going to be worth the hassle - not even if labour is cheap.
Now if they figure out a way to reduce my ass by half, the person sharing my monitor can also share my chair!
http://twitter.com/OLDTELEGRAM
... micro management.....
Ok so you have this 52" or DLP projector screen and the whole office working off of it.
I can hear it now, as the manager tells Fred to move his cursor faster and Julie to stop slowing the computer down doing company graphics. While leroy on his break can no longer check to see how his stock is doing. Of course Jackson has to work after hours to do accounting as a matter of keeping the company numbers hidden from those who get paid less but do more.....
Michael, That sentence you are writing should be done this way...
Holy fuck, I need 2-3 screens for each one of my computers, not the other way around. Giving intelligent people more screen real estate, not less, is good for productivity. I guess this idea is for the hoardes of idiots out there that just can't cope with more than 640x480's worth of a single application at a time. Unfortunately, I know they are out there - I've had to "support" them before.
All pass beyond reach of medicine. None pass beyond the reach of love.
I vaguely remember a (PCI?) device doing something similar to this in a Tiger Direct magazine. It was around 1999 or 2000. Does anyone else remember?
My understanding is that the the users will still be sharing the underlying processors, I/Os and memory. But since they could run different OSes and there are no mentioning of how the individual schedulers would share usage information, could this lead to worse time sharing behaviour and a further degrade in user experience?
How about the good old CRTs? Used ones are dirt cheap in my local used markets. (For $10 you can get a 19".)
Apart from for Siamese twins, I don't see this being applied.
Spare $$$ on the OS or office-suit; buy an extra monitor.
If you mod this up, your slashdot background will turn into a beautiful sunset!
Or perhaps its every other keystroke?
Either way, you'd better think twice about e-mailing a complaint to HR about your cubemates body odor.
Have gnu, will travel.
on the linked pagee en_tec.html?category=technology&guid=2007042009153 0
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/05/04/splitscr
the thumbnail of the split screens have start-taskbark-minimized tasks/clock
but the full size image does not...
what?
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Every company I've worked for would use this as an excuse to buy half as many computers, save the money, and keep the customer waiting.
Microsoft's splitPC doesn't require an extra piece of hardware; it's entirely in software. RTFS next time.
That's got to be the dumbest fucking idea I've ever heard from my years at Microsoft.
It is not just two Operating systems sharing the same processor but you also have to plug in a second mouse and keyboard.
Maybe it is the one PC per two children program?
I could have sworn I saw a prototype picture in PC Mag of something like this a few years ago. It was a tablet/laptop type deal, with a screen that could physically split in half.
Can anybody tell me what I'm thinking of?
Wow! Microsoft is ripping off VMWare.... Guess Apple didn't have enough nifty ideas to keep their PHB's drooling...
2 cents,
Queen B.
HDGary secures my bank
...that if this was developed by x Linux team everyone here would be raving about its usefulness. Why is everyone always so bitter towards Microsoft and literally EVERYTHING they do?
Can you hook up multiple keyboards? And then assign each keyboard to a particular instance? And have multiple people use them simultaneously? Easily?
Companies so big as Microsoft need to put new products on the market every now and then to look like they're always working on something innovative and raise interest among their investors.
This includes lame products like this "invention" which is pretty useless when taking into account how information grows while monitors get cheaper every day.
Developing nations? Oh please! The hardware upgrade needed to run at a decent speed two virtualized XP (or worse Vista) would cost multiple times a second monitor.
This is snake oil for investors.
On the second thought, this would be perfect for extreme programming. Remember, you have to sit close enough to smell each other's farts.
kid1: You got WoW in my screen.
kid2: You got screen in my WoW.
In Soviet Russia, screen splits YOU!
I think calling this an "invention" is stretching the term "invention" past its breaking point, given that there are, oh, dozens of ways in which people have done this before.
No doubt, the real innovation of Microsoft's version is that you end up needing a license for each half of the screen and that they are going to use "trusted computing" to enforce that.
Blue-Half-Screen-Of-Death!
...different than a thin client, really? All this seems like is a thin client/server in one box? Or in other words, one mobo, double the ports.
They'll add a second screen. Eventually, they'll create little boxes that talk to the main box and allow even more little boxes that will support more users. What's that? They already have that? It's called WTS?
Coming soon from Addison Wesley: new editions of the blockbuster "eXtreme Programming" series, updated to incorporate info on how pair programming can leverage the exciting new technology from Microsoft to empower workgroups to out agile-ate the competition.
How is this different than synergy?
http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/
They didn't invent squat..
Bringing liberty to the masses. - http://freetalklive.com/
You work the pedals and I'll steer!
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
Run different applications in different windows (aka different areas of the screen). How original.
And two Office licenses, you can have four actual computers running Linux with no registration hassles and far fewer security issues...
Am I missing something, or are we not doing this with virtualization?
-b
.sig
Because that is what it is as far as I'm concerned. I don't think anybody
would want to even _risk_ calling up intimate data on a screen where someone
else is standing besides them and staring at the screen.
So what's next, Tavistock?? Do we get naked for the camera you installed over
the toilet?
I've got hardware that does this already, it's called an axe. It's a little harder to restore single-user mode afterwards though.
On y va, qui mal y pense!
Anyone ever heard of Betwin? It has been around for some years now... http://www.thinsoftinc.com/
BUY MICROSOFT STOCK!
No more split screen! One worker wears red glasses, one worker wears blue glasses! Or just use a pair of cheap 3D glasses and keep one eye shut! Wait, sharing a screen using shuttered or color-coded glasses might just work, I better patent this...
Combined with the pair programming chair, this invention will mark a new era in extreme programming.
Open Source Alternatives
This split screen thing reminds me of computer games made for devices that were not networked. X and a low power thin client is the correct solution here.
Only Microsoft gives you wheels with profiles in every possible geometric shape except from circular. Oh and use Microsoft software or they'll sue you for not using square wheels.
About 20 years after the game industry, MS invents split screen computer use.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
This is the same group which wants to give multiple mouse to one PC. The dumbest idea to experiment with children of developing countries. Why cant the children have cheaper individual PC's.
Great! Now you can watch Windows crash twice!
Microsoft is just grabbing at anything because they know windows is currently incapable (in a technical/architectural sense) of competing with this.
I think it is a good idea. What if you hook on two monitors to this split screen feature enabled PC. Isn't it a good idea? You can reduce a lot of redundant hardware. Only thing is that the graphics card should have a dual VGA port. All the rest can be the same. In countries where hardware is expensive everything counts.
Microsoft doesn't just copy Apple anymore, do they?
-Rob
Biblical fiscal responsibility
Exclusive photo. :-)
Finally! Now I can open more than 3 windows simultanely!
I think a better approach for the tasks mentioned would be to run a single OS and have two independent {mouse cursors / text-field cursors / clipboards / application focuses} in the same desktop environment that spanned the entire screen. This would use less memory and allow people to easily interact with each other's work, make use of OLE objects, etc. You could argue you need two environments for security... but since each user has physical access to the other's input devices... not to mention the ability to see their screen and shoulder-surf it's sort of a moot point.
It doesn't mention this in TFA, but tech support management apps that I have seen could easily fit on 1/2 a screen w/a tabbed interface. Your main tasks are to lookup the customers, record billable time, notate key points of the problem, read some stepped hep files, and pass it on if the fix is not simple.
And considering this was developed in India there just might be something to this.
Regards.
if you split a widescreen monitor running two different OS's on the same box with one keyboard and one mouse that can move seamlessly between the two OS's. Although it seems like it would be fairly straightforward make a simple wrapper for vmware or qemu which boots multiple VM's simultaneously in some sort of tiled configuration in the same window. Personally, I feel that a Beryl/Compiz-esque cubed desktop interface for a virtualized multi OS environment would be the most intuitively pleasing and usable way to go about something like this.
Monitors really aren't that expensive and due to space constraints around the monitor you'd have to get big monitors so the users could sit back far enought not to get in each other's way. This is hardly different from running a linux box with two users on two different monitors.
But I'm sure microsoft will patent the idea and nobody will actually use it.
...and that is all I have to say about that.
http://jessta.id.au
Maybe the article had it wrong, but separate OS for each half of the screen seems bloated to me. After all, this is targeted at low income families and schools in developing countries, where low-specs PCs are the norm. A single instance of the OS, managing the two sessions seems more efficient.
And please don't tell me each half will be running Windows Vista Half Screen Edition. A low spec'd PC running not one, but TWO instances of Vista? You'd need a Beowulf cluster to do that!
Does this mean Windows gets multiuser support?
I guess India just got all those golden oldies we've played 15yrs ago. Yesterday we've played split-screen car racing games, side-scrollers and today we're writing texts in pairs.
:)
Who said all that play time was wasted?
It is always better to be a first grade version of yourself than a second grade version of someone else.
will it cover the entire screen or just the half of it?
Are you a paid shill? Because you sure sound like one.
BEEN DONE BEFORE. Shuttle computers made something like this, I remember it like a year or two ago. It was a computer you plug 2 monitors, keyboards, and mice in...and 2 people can use it at one time.
he demonstrated by A plus B minus C divided by Z that the sheep must be red, and die of the rot
I like how gaming console systems went from using split screens for 2 players, to networking multiple consoles so each person has his/her own screen. Now PCs are going from networking multiple PCs so each person has his/her own screen to sharing a single screen via splitscreens? Uh, as Bender would say "does not compute".
On a side note, if you work for a company that has to resort to using this type technology in order to be able to afford computers to satisfy the number employees working there, that's probably a good indicator that you need to be looking for employment elsewhere.
Haven't video game consoles been doing this for a while? I remember playing Goldeneye against my friend and using a single monitor (TV screen) whose image was divided into two.
There's already a perfect solution to this problem, the remote-desktop or X terminal depending on your OS.
...
The only problem is that with windows you have to buy a minor variation of the OS that's 5 times the price and still pay more for each desktop. So what you save on hardware you pay out three times over to Microsoft.
BTW: Current screens have speakers, USB ports and a CPU; "all" that may be needed is a tiny upgrade to the CPU and it'll be a "remote desktop" client. But for a "remote desktop" client to be useful Microsoft would have to stop screwing their customers
Ideal for conjoined twins.
Or Red Bull...
billg: Argg. I have found a way to merge 2 computers into one.
steve: (Throws Chair) That will never work.
billg: (Drags cursor across the room and clicks on chair)
billg: Havn't you heard? This new technology gives you wiings!
steve: (Watches as chair sprout wings and flys away)
When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. - Jefferson
So hasn't virtual terminals and screen locking solved this already, e.g. use linux! F8? With xserver running on it anyone? Sounds as half baked as MS tab completion they added to the command prompt in XP, I'll take Bash or Zsh thankyou.
bet they're gonna get a patent on this groundbreaking invention known to myself since the times of Need For Spead and before.
Do not. Touch. Down.
I somehow don't like the idea of two people sharing the same PC. The personal computer won't be personal anymore.
Wow, this like what my 1993 SparcStation 10 can do. You have a single CPU unit with multiple framebuffers, thus allowing for up to four sets of monitors, keyboards, and mice.
I envision this as the only practical use of this technology; The ability to share a single computer between four office cubes of call-center workers, each with their own monitor, keyboard, and mouse.
I think this would be not too bad for dual-screen type situations. I have played around with dual-screening a bit and my major problem with it is when an application is full-screened on one screen it usually minimized applications on the other screen. Likewise, when you moved the mouse/keyboard focus away from full-screened application it usually minimized while you were in another application. I never really played around with it too too much but this might be an elegant way around this.
And then, you'll need the new, patented, Ballmer chair.
Wide enough to hold two wide butts (or one Ballmer butt)
to sit in front of the monitor.
Free chair throwing license included!
You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
It was annoying in Goldeneye 64, it's gonna be much more annoying when you're using windows.
We could call it "multi tasking" or a "multi user system" or "the concurrent interweb" or something! One computer doing two things at once!!!
I remember seeing a solution that did this a long time ago advertised in a computer magazine, probably around 1996 or so. It relied on some specialized hardware and software. Hardware took in one PS/2 mouse and keyboard and SVGA, and spat out two keyboard, two mice, and two video outputs. Back then USB wasn't widespread. I forget the name of the company (this was ages ago) but they are probably out of business long since and their hardware long since thrown away. Of course today with dual-output graphics cards somewhat the norm and usb keyboards and mice, you could easilly do a software only solution.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
Vista? Doesn't MS disallow Vista on a VM w/o a special license?
from 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
to 45 2F 6E 40 3C DF 10 71 4E 41 DF AA 25 7D 31 3F
I don't think it's useful - but still. Linux has support for multiple mice and keyboards quite some time now. With multiple screens that even is somwhat useful. Now if you really must have multiple Xservers running on one Monitor you could always run Xephyr. No Idea how whoever wrote the article got the idea there were multiple OSes running,though.
This seems to me like a bad idea, primarily because two people staring at the same monitor will experience a good degree of stress.
:1.0 -geometry 512x768+0+0 & :2.0 -geometry 512x768+512+0 &
But still, someone can find it useful. So, here's how I have just done it on Linux:
Xnest
Xnest
Haven't thought of a smart DM config yet.
btw, multiple desktops would be a boon for someone with such a setup.
WYSIWIG, but what you see might not be what you need
Sure, you have virtual terminals on Linux but that only lets one user use the console at a time. More on par with this is the Six-headed configuration. Add virtualization and I don't see why something very similar can't be archived. However, splitting of the display seems absolutely stupid. Even with a wide screens, the viewing configuration wouldn't be ergonomic so a multi-headed configuration with multiple console inputs seems smarter and more economical (since you don't have to start widening cubicles and paying for neck and back strain injuries) to me. The only reason to do something like what they're trying to do is simply to figure how to do it and then hopefully apply that knowledge to something that's actually useful.
Could have sworn I saw this ~20 years ago on a Cyber 180 that was running both NOS and NOS/VE on the same physical machine (these OSes don't even use the same word size!). OK the console wasn't split-screen, you had to flip between one and the other, but that hardly seems like a critical change (most of us would *rather* have the whole screen to play with, with whichever OS has focus right now).
OK, I haven't figured out how to separate mice and keyboards. I only have one of each... And little time.
WYSIWIG, but what you see might not be what you need
Thats just great, the Indians invented a split screen system and I'll have to listen to them support it. Im sorry but listening to Boganeshj saying his name is Bill is enough for me . Dothead bastards!!
I've always liked how French telephones have a spare earpiece for another person to listen in with. So this feature seems like it could be useful when someone comes to my desk to work on something with me. With it I'd be able to offer them a spare keyboard and mouse and some screen real estate (or maybe my second monitor) so they wouldn't have to be totally high-and-dry from the 'net while there.
I doubt MS thought of it, but this could actually be a way for parents to watch what their kids are doing on the net. Maybe buy a wide screen that could be used for wide tv/movies or for two word processing sessions? But you can't past between them.. much better to use a virtual pc type thing and just write a driver to redirect an extra set of mouse/keyboard to one of them..
I've heard of something similar before, a single PC with separate keyboards and mice (and I thought separate screens but don't remember) so that with 1 core PC you can add peripherals for more people to sit around it working. For use in a 3rd world country I thought.. of course unless they are splitting a screen that's got corners it will be quite sweaty over there..
Oh there is one other use. You could have a bunch of dumb terminals running sessions on a split screen and project the screen. Already thought of that kind of thing before though and it wouldn't be enhanced by actually splitting the screen itself. Not that I'd use Vista for it..
Do you get two Blue Screens of Death for the price of one?
Split screen is lame. But dual monitors, with one screen per user would rock. My kids fight for the computer all the time and this would solve some problems. Then in single pc mode it would have dual (or triple) monitors.
a) This is not innovation; /. stuff? Does this matter? /.
b) This is not Microsoft's. Dividing a screen has been done in so many contexts, I'm being a fool just to mention this;
c) Why are these R&D guys being paid to make this? I could write BS like this and I'm not being paid!
d) Why is this
e) Split screen could be much more interesting: e.g. with a flexible display which could be folded (and unfolded), so that to guys could sit at an angle or even opposed;
f) This is Microsoft, which is enough reason to postpone this to Monday, instead of ruining a beautiful Sunday;
g) We really want innovation, like an ultra-cheap LCD (or even better, e-ink) display, possibly with natural sun lighting instead of a lamp. Don't tell me nobody is doing this. Why can't big corporations with enourmous vaults design simple innovative things? Does money make one dumb?
h) Aw, come on. At least Roland comes up with innovative things and everybody and his dog lambasts him. Damn, who sends this shut?
i) Please, someone mount a rotating projector and with clever timing, build a cave. This would be way more interesting...
j) I got tired, but this could go on to 26 reasons not to post BS on
I distinctly remember an IBM 5250-family terminal attached to a System/34 (Or /36) that had two CRTs for this purpose. It looked like two 5251s joined back-to-back. IIRC it required only one twinax connection. Does anyone remember the ID?
Dilbert now has to share his cubicle with another bitter employee.
So, Microsoft has discovered how to run VMWare in an application window? This reminds me of when Microsoft discovered that two people could be logged into a computer at the same time and called it Windows Terminal Server. The "New Technology" must be the attachment of the Windows name to the project.
Or maybe you couldn't have multiple keyboards/pointers assigned to independent windowed sessions in Windows before this? It's been a while since I've used Windows. If this is the case, it's good to see that Windows is starting to catch up.
Request a Linux Shockwave player here: http://www.macromedia.com/support/email/wishform/
Perfect chair for dual screen. Seems pretty heavy as well, so it should be proof against vandalism by Microsoft CEO's.
A slightly offtopic question: I've frequently found it would be useful to have multiple mice running under a single windows session, primarily for clicking through tedious dialog boxes that lack hotkey shortcuts. Does anyone know of a good way to setup XP or Vista with one user and two mouse pointers? Differentiating between the clicks wouldn't be necessary.
It's similar to this question, but without separate messages for separate mice clicks.
The ______ Agenda
multiXnest is designed to run several user X sessions on one computer. It's actually meant for multimonitor setups, but it can certainly do many users on one monitor too; just that it hasn't seemed like a good idea to anyone, and still doesn't to me.
The MS solution does seem to be intending to add some more integration than multiXnest can do, though, what with the moving mouse cursor over to the other session. I'm sure the innovation of being able to move one's cursor over the entire screen will be a patentworthy addition.
"Mother's gone too far. She'd put cardboard over her half of the television. We rented "Man Without A Face" - I didn't even know he had a problem!"
Cheers,
IT
Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.
you can run two operating systems at once.
Who says the other OS has to be Windows, though? If they are using Virtual PC or some other virtual machine, just stick on a copy of Linux and run Windows and Linux at the same time. Top screen for Windows, bottom screen for Linux.
Ah heck, just get a system that uses a virtual machine and load two OSes on that virtual machine and assign one monitor to one virtual machine and another monitor to the second virtual machine.
I wonder if you can use a PS/2 keyboard and mouse for one machine and stick in a USB keyboard and an USB mouse for the second machine.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
...If this does allow the OS to logically seperate two virtual systems on a single screen, the upshot of that is that if you have a dual screen system, it should be able to segregate the extended desktop as well -- essentially giving you two nearly full-fledged workstations for the cost of a single one + 2nd monitor. There's plenty of practical applications for that in an office environment.
Most plug-in video adapters these days are dual-head, montors are cheap, and the typical user only uses a fraction of the horsepower their machine has to offer. I doubt that this idea has much merrit in a single-monitor configuration, but I can definitely see a market for it when dealing with dual-screen setups.
Keyboard and Mouse Industry Continues to Thrive.
--
Franklin
I used PCs right up until my desktop burst into flame, at which point I purchased a brand new MBP. I instantly adapted to the UI, and while I'm not an emo freak like the people in your pictures, I am able to use and understand the UI and am doing research and learning more about the OS.
I know, I know, you're a troll... but I thought I'd respond and let you know that just because us "PC" guys are dorky and not social or artistic, that doesn't mean we can't enjoy OS X and the sexy Apple hardware.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
I agree. Perhaps this can be solved running 2 instances of Linux/X with different configuration files specifying the different input and output devices? Anyone have suggestions as to how this can be done? And then, if you wanted windows or mac, you can run different instances of Qemu/Xen/whatever on each X server.
I don't see why the same thing cannot be achieved with technologies already available today. VMware workstation, Linux KVM, allow you to run multiple operating systems on the same machine. With thin client technologies (e.g. Wyse) you can actually use a single machine to run many OSes simultaneously and users can have their own thin computers that will access those OS instances remotely. If the different OS need is not very necessary, then VNC is the simplest solution that one can use for this kind of split access.
I can think of at least one thing out of them that has landed in a production product. I remember a while back (it was on Slashdot even, link would be appreciated), where someone there made a special program for Wi-Fi cards that did something I call "Leapfrog Mode", where it would connect to multiple APs at once, and automatically choose the "primary" AP based on signal strength. Some form of this is in Vista.
P.S. If this can be done in Linux, I'd like to know how
"I think an etch-a-sketch with an ethernet port would beat IE7 in web standards compliance."
Now only if we can develop the technology to physically splice the screen so that each of the two users can move his part of the screen where he likes, it would be the best invention since the sliced bread.
Or instead of buying one 19" screen, and forcing two people to sit on top of eachother, you could buy several 15" screens, and allow many people to sit in comfort. link. In gist, it's a multi-headed X server, with a USB keyboard and mouse pair assigned to each head~
I mod down anyone who says "I will be modded down for this", regardless of the rest of their comment
Look at current jep equipment on many of the commercial and air force aircrafts. You will find a single screen, where it has buttons on the right and left. In addition, it is a touch screen. It displays info about the aircraft (via a OS-178B system), and hit one of the buttons on the right, and you will have programs from a windows system. The input is based on which one is active.
And of course, X-windows (esp with x-nest) is a better example
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
I've done this w/ VMWare for years.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
I have seen many families who at one point had multiple pc's (one for each child). Later as the machines got infected or physically stopped working the would just buy a new system (with monitor/keyboard/mouse) and so they've got a couple old monitors/keyboards/mice just sitting in the garage or closet.
What I'd like to see someone invent is a device where can plug in 1 computer, 5 monitors, 5 external drives, keyboards, mice. And have each user with their own account using the system simultaneously. In this age of quad-core super fast systems and well written, resource efficient linux applications I don't see why this hasn't been done already. Especially when you consider the vast majority of home users only use their computer to browse the web, chat, type simple documents and other simple activities that can be accomplished on systems built in 1995.
Benefits:
* This would be most useful for poorer families who can't afford a computer for each child.
* All the children would be in the same room where parents could easily monitor their children's activities.
* Less use of electricity
* Less discarding of perfectly good monitors/keyboards/mice
* Schools that only teach office apps anyway can save on the number of systems they have to buy.
* Even if schools bought windows they'd have to buy less copies/seats since 'seats' means individual machines.
To implement keyboard sharing at the OS level, we could use technology from here:
http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/pornview
All PornView opera tions may be controlled with only one hand using a mouse or the key board arrow keys.This would be great if it worked for more than one monitor. Then you could just have one PC in the house and have everyone have their own monitor, keyboard, and mouse as an access point to it. If most of what the house did was only as intensive as surfing the web and writing papers there would be a masive cost savings to be had.
In most cases you wouldn't need multiple OSs though. Only the ability to run multiple user accounts, each on their own screen. I guess this just give more flexibility though.
"To be is to do." --Socrates
"To do is to be." -- Aristotle
"Do-Be-Do-Be-Do..." --Sinatra
XAT, the "X Address Translation", does this kind of work already on Unix systems. Take a look here: http://www.c3sl.ufpr.br/multiseat/xat/
Does this mean the computer will BSOD twice as often or is it actually an exponential increase and the computer will BSOD four times as often? I can just imagine that when (not if) your half of the system freezes there'll be fun and games asking the other user to restart their computer so that your computer starts working again. And all those reboots required when you run Windows Update twice on one computer doesn't bear thinking about.
Hey, MICROSOFT! PST! Over here!
Maybe you should, I don't know, GET VISTA TO INSTALL FLAWLESSLY, OR WORK before moving on to inventing more stupid shit!
~A concerned customer
Wow, what an incredible leap forward :-).
I do hope Microsoft patents this valuable technology... in order to prevent hordes of idiots from attempting something similarly moronic.
Sigh.
Jetway created a product long ago that does this (although now old/off the market). Once again Microsoft fails. They don't invent anything. They just make people think they do so they can make money selling it. Invention my ass. http://www.jetwaycomputer.com/others.html
So you could just say that Apple invented everything in the computer industry for the last 100 years.
Wasn't ClearType a result of Microsoft Research?
What a fuckin dumb idea
TRUE
I could only see some sort of benefit if they were developing a way to use two mice and keyboards on the one OS, not split the screen.
It seems like the smartest thing would be to use one PC and two monitors. Monitors aren't that expensive compared to PCs, especially for an office environment (i.e. not flat-screen). For most office applications, the PCs are so fast they could easily handle two employees and their monitors, but computer companies make you buy more power, because they can. I mean, I can run Joost on my TV while I surf the web and play online poker on my Macbook monitor, so it seems like this would be a great solution for employees who don't need much processing power.
WikiCreole - a common wiki markup language
The article mentions two times that each side of the screen runs its own operating system. Is this really so? I think it's more likely that it simply lets two users log in at once. Running different copies of the OS would require virtualization, twice as much RAM, and would suck more CPU power. Not to mention the part about moving the mouse cursor over to the other half. If it's not within the same operating system, this would probably need to be network transparent, meaning you could just as well move your cursor over to a screen in the next building. I find it unlikely that they bothered to implement this, so it adds to my suspicion that the article is wrong about the two operating systems.
Also, like others mentioned, it would be a lot more useful to hook up an extra monitor than splitting the screen. Two 15" monitors would probably even be cheaper than one 17". You avoid the vertical split that makes the screen real estate hopeless to work with, and you sit at a comfortable distance apart. If the idea behind the project is actually productized, I guess they'll end up adding support for utilizing separate video cards.
Oh, and one more thing. What does the license for MS Office say about two people using the same copy simultaneously? Within the same running instance of Windows.
...any invention here. split-screen has been around for ages, as well as sharing computing power.
people (and editors...) really need to start thinking for themselves again, repeat with me:
- numbers can not be copyrighted, to copyright something there has to be a minimum creative effort
- if you sell the right to listen to a piece of music or to watch a movie the hardware where the data to be replayed is saved upon is only a matter of transportation and has nothing to do with copyright.
- an invention is when you come up with something an average professional could not have thought up if confronted with the task, not if you just throw together some long existing techniques in a try to pull off more revenue per computer.
- legislation should not pass laws protecting a business-model, businesses shall adapt to reality
- 500 low-end ($500) enterprise PCs + 500 Windows licenses for 500 employees;
- 250 middle-end ($800) enterprise PCs (you're running two copies of most applications) + 250 to 500 Windows licenses + 250 sharing software licenses to share between 500 employees;
- 3 terminal servers clustered ($5000 the whole bunch) + 500 thin clients ($150 each) + Windows licenses + 10 middle-end PCs ($800) for those who need more power?
Bonus points for considering maintenance costs and equipment life cycle.Usage: km/h for speed (kilometers per hour); kph for very slow impulses (kilopond hours).
Stupid engineering ideas
This should be on the history channel ... it's not a discovery ... it's like we're going back in time
Eureka! They've solved the "computing on a shoestring" problem way ahead of time. Maybe not a laptop, but the price is in the right ballpark.
send + more == money?
...but only one monitor... nice.
Maybe Microsoft finds a way to share mouse and keyboard as well... uhm.. wait..
Since most people can't share the same desk, nevermind the same screen I don't know how this is going to work. If it is a matter of a shortage of desktops then invest in a diskless workstation server. It should work out at a fifth of the cost of the same number of fat clients. Besides which hardware is relatively cheap nowadays.
davecb5620@gmail.com
Isn't that 4 times?
1: NameBrand sells BigCorp a pc preloaded with a Windows vista licensese
2: BigCorp have agreed to pay one vista for every employee they have even if the system came with a license
3: Lease up and system returned but license not transferable so whoever buys the pc can run linux/bsd/oss or buy one more vista license
4: It was shipped to a place where this split screen is in use and they need to buy one more license for the second screen
How about one PC with multiple graphic cards, kbd and mouse all playing along at the same time. Wait, that's another old thing, just look at this six headed six usersolution they created with linux.
Every time I read comments here, it's only a matter of time before some moron completely derails and destroys the good conversation by mentioning Second Life, OpenOffice.org, or Hitler. This is not your MMOG forum, your captive audience for (crappy) FOSS evangelism, or your "oh-noes-the-Holocaust" support group. The minute you mention those topics, it's over, close tab, the discussion is screwed. So do us all a favour and shut the fuck up.
for surfing pron in privacy.
~Vexed and loving it!
If we make the Indian workers wear special glasses with colored lenses, we can give the two workers a full screen.
First we take two sets of 3d glasses, and put both blue lenses in one set and both red lenses in the other set. One windows desktop is running in red scale and one in blue scale. User 1 gets blue, and the red content of the screen is filtered out for him by the glasses. User 2 gets red, and the blue content is filtered out for him by the glasses.
In fact, if we apply this color model to the existing split screen model, we can have 4 Indians using one PC screen! Think of the efficiency this can create.
The outer Xorg must be the multi-cursor variety. Bind the pointer/keyboard sets to each Xnest client to make sure they get dedicated focus.
Alternatively (if you can afford two monitors and VGA cards) set up independant X servers on each screen, and bind them to specific USB input devices.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
Why does it require two copies of Windows?
Seriously strange. I thought Window was a multi-user operating system now?
As an invention it really isn't. putting two users on one monitor is silly, unless you have a big monitor in which case you may as well buy two smaller monitors to save money.
...and that is all I have to say about that.
http://jessta.id.au
a quick and dirty soloution could be to get a monitor with two inputs. then you can either have both your monitors on your main PC or one on your main PC and one on your old PC.
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register