Have Laptop Will Travel

Over the weekend I installed *Nix on the laptop of a friend. He had just bought a new laptop, complete with preinstalled Windows Vista Home Premium and wanted to try out what all the fuzz about was.
He asked me to install any distro for him, because he was scared to mess with his Vista install.

Where personally I’d prefer OpenSuse 10, for his limited usage Ubuntu is more than way too much already.

At first I was worried : another Dell, Wireless and and a series of multimedia buttons on the laptop casing. Hopefully it would all go right and I wouldn’t have to spend hours searching the web and compiling drivers for the Dell specific hardware.
I was impressed: Ubuntu was installed in less than half an hour and except for the wireless chip and graphics driver, every hardware was corrected recognized and had it’s own driver. Wifi worked and the maximum display settings were recognized properly too. Again less than 30 minutes later, all standard packages were updated and the notebook was ready for the road.

Highly impressed I must admit.
My friend, when he came to collect his notebook, a happy camper. A new laptop, dual boot Vista and Ubuntu and most of all, working hardware. He hit the road with the Ubuntu Dell. But not for long.
Within an hour someone called me. On my land line! This had to be serious, no one calls me on my land line.

It was him. He asked me about the wonderful cross-platform Synergy mouse and keyboard sharing software.
I briefly explained him that it was listed under the packages and how to install it. I made myself a Gin&Tonic, to enjoy my Saturday evening. Everything was set for a quiet evening, without any disturbances.

But plans got screwed up. Someone called me. Only 3 minutes after I had made my drink. It was him again.

Where do I find the shortcut to Synergy? How do I open it?

Sigh.
Tuxers, KISS if you’re really going to conquer the world.

Sorry for the anecdotal intermezzo. :)

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