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Announcing Multiplicity

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Announcing Multiplicity

Control multiple computers from a single keyboard and mouse

https://www.stardock.com/products/multiplicity
from WinCustomize Forums
LIVONIA, Mich.----Feb. 9, 2005--Software developer Stardock Corporation announced a brand new product today, Multiplicity, a program that allows users to control multiple computers with a single keyboard and mouse. For users, it's much like using a multiple-monitor setup - when the user moves their mouse to a monitor connected to a different PC the user is then controlling that computer. It is not a remote control solution.

A typical configuration would be 2 or 3 computers, each with its own monitor connected to that computer. The primary computer would have the keyboard and mouse hooked up to it. The secondary computers receive input via a network connection about the mouse's location. When the mouse passes onto their screen, the user is in control of that PC.

"It's totally seamless," said Brad Wardell, Product Manager of Multiplicity. "I can be playing a full screen game on one screen and have an instant messaging conversation going on the other computer. I just move my mouse over to the other monitor to type a response and then move it back to continue controlling my character in the game I'm playing."

Multiplicity also provides a universal clipboard between machines. Users can copy images or text from one machine, move their mouse over to another monitor, and paste it. The Pro version of Multiplicity allows users to also copy and paste files and directories between machines.
Stardock plans to target engineering firms, testing centers, power users, gamers, and other markets that tend to have people that may have multiple computers.

"If you've ever sent yourself an email to move a file or piece of data in the same room then you need Multiplicity," said Wardell. "If you are currently in an office where there's keyboard and mice taking over your desk or table, you need Multiplicity."

Multiplicity will come in two forms, standard and professional. Multiplicity standard version will list for $39.95 and supports controlling two computers. Multiplicity Pro will list for $69.95 which supports controlling up to any number of computers as well as supports copying files and folders between machines.

Stardock expects to release Multiplicity by the end of February. Its home page is https://www.stardock.com/products/multiplicity
 

Versions:
Multiplicity Standard: $39.95
Multiplicity Pro: $69.95

Requires: Windows 2000 or Windows XP. At least two computers with at least 1 monitor on each computer.

Developer:
Stardock Corp. (www.stardock.com).
17292 Farmington Rd.
Livonia MI 48152

About Stardock:
Stardock is a Midwestern Windows software development company. It is best known for creating software that extends and enhances to functionality of Microsoft Windows. Its principle product is a suite of desktop enhancements called Object Desktop (www.objectdesktop.com) which includes its popular utilities WindowBlinds, DesktopX, ObjectBar, IconPackager, SkinStudio, RightClick, Keyboard LaunchPad, and much more.

It also runs the world's most popular desktop customization website called WinCustomize.com (www.wincustomize.com) which receives over 3 million unique visitors each month.

Stardock has also developed popular PC strategy games such as the award winning Galactic Civilizations (www.galciv.com) and The Political Machine (www.politicalmachine.com). Its game software is available at retail as well as through its innovative electronic distribution network TotalGaming.net (www.totalgaming.net).

37,017 views 64 replies
Reply #26 from WinCustomize Forums Top

This is totally different to Remote Desktop, PCAnywhere etc.

This app allows you to have 2 or more computers (and screens) in your office, but only 1 keyboard & mouse.  So you could have a work PC and a irc machine for example.  Want to control the irc machine, just move the mouse off the side of the work machines screen & you are controlling it.  Or you could use a hotkey to switch.

Your desk becomes less cluttered and personally I have found it increases my productivity by quite a lot.

Reply #27 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I dunno Night Train I didn't see where that was possible.
Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #28 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Remote desktop, radmin, VNC, and the like are great solutions for bringing the remote desktops to your main PC.

Multiplicity needs another monitor hooked up to secondary PC (up to 6 of them). There's no getting around that for the moment (by design). If you don't have 2 PC's and 2 monitors, it's of no use to you.

Let me give some examples. Until you've used it, imho, you don't even realize that you've been missing something without it. Which is what the trial version will be for!

- Have you upgraded your main PC at home but the other one isn't quite ready to collect dust in the corner of your office? Have you ever emailed yourself a file or burned a CD to get it 6 feet across the desk to another machine?

- Do you have a laptop or a tablet? Are you on the road and when you come back to the office, you want to control everything from one place?

- Would you like to play games on one PC will still being able to surf the web and IM on the other? Or play multiple accounts in a MMO game at once (yes, people do this, I was surprised too!).

- Do you develop software for a living or hobby and need to test it elsewhere? Are you an artist and want to be able to work on something else while a render or filter happen?

- Do you have to test software on multiple configurations? Some people do have a half-dozen mice and keyboards on their desk.

- Do you need more "desktop" to monitor something that can go on a secondary machine while you continue to work uninterrupted in your main one?

Kris [who works for Stardock and can't do without Multiplicity]

 

Reply #29 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Frogboy

Comparing it to Synergy is like comparing Photoshop to the Gimp.

It has a lot to do with usability and features. On paper, a car and a 18-wheel semi are pretty darn similar. It's when you decide you want to drive to the store that the practical differences come into play.


Will Multiplicity ever support anything other than win2000 and xp? (Non-window's)
Reply #30 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Using OS X as a secondary (machine without the keyboard and mouse) is in the near-term plan. Whether that makes the 1.0 release or comes after, we'll see.

 

Reply #31 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I dunno Night Train I didn't see where that was possible.


It changed.
Reply #32 from WinCustomize Forums Top
NightTrain, that page wasn't supposed to be accessible anymore.
Reply #34 from WinCustomize Forums Top
It seems like its difficult for people/companioes to understand what multiplicity does, and how it can seriously impact your performance at home and work. I mean, if you've never worn shoes before, you really don't know how cool it is to wear shoes. This is pretty much the story with this product.

For example at the company i'm starting work at in a couple of weeks, when I took a tour of the department I would be running, I was FLOORED at how many stations had multiple PC's. But that wasn't the bad part, the bad part was looking at the multitude of keyboards and mice stacked on the desks or laying off to the side. Now to them, this was normal since this is how they've always done business.

Selling it to them would be another story. It might even take an on-site demonstration to convince them. Because they are so atuned to doing things the normal way, its hard for them to envision using a product that would make them so much more productive. Thats the delima with the corporate sales of Multiplicity IMHO. You can't just call someone on the phone and expect to sell it. This is even more evident with the general confusion among the people on this forum about "What it does".. (We've seen it incorrectly compared to KVM, RA Software, even Video Switches)

Its a unique product, that I think will require a unique selling strategy for business penetration. My 2Plat for what its worth.
Reply #35 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I dunno, I have 5 machines here in my room, and all but one are headless and have neither keyboard nor mouse. The one being my laptop. I use RDP on them all, and short of a Major incident requiring a reinstall, I hardly touch them with KYB's or Mice, or Monitors. I do everything RDP. I used to use vnc, but it is too touchy for my needs (read too slow.) Now I use Native RDP from XP Pro, and PCAnywhere when I have sound issues ( I use one machine as a MP3 JukeBox, and MS Terminal Services gets funky for some reason and will not play sound properly, so I have to use PCA)




This multiplicity still utilizes an additional monitor. So in effect you have a machine with no hands or feet.OK.. so this allows you to maintain a seperate machine Identity and Usage. How does it work in a Virtual PC environment?
Reply #38 from WinCustomize Forums Top
CygnusXII, I don't understand your VirtualPC question.
Reply #39 from WinCustomize Forums Top
OK. Placed my order. Only twelves days to delivery. The Tablet awaits . . .
Reply #40 from WinCustomize Forums Top
well if I have a virtual PC running on a diff machine, how does it react when I move to that machine with multiplicity, and then try to control the VPC?
Reply #41 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Cygnus, it controls the VPC like you were using the local mouse connected to the secondary (diff) machine.
Reply #42 from WinCustomize Forums Top

One word "KVM Switch"....

No, it's not like a KVM switch. We use KVM switches here too. It's a totally different type of use. KVM switches are great if you want to have ONE monitor, ONE keyboard, ONE mouse with lots of computers.

Multiplicity is designed to let a user make use of multiple computers at once. Each computer has at least 1 monitor hooked up to it still. It's a productivity app for letting the user integrate their computing power together.

Reply #43 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I still say Multiplicity screams to be shown in a video. Do a before, with you trying to run a game and chat and stuff at the same time, moving from keyboard/mouse back and forth. Then have you install multiplicity, showing it installs in seconds, and then show you tossing those extra keyboards/mice in the trash and doing it all with multiplicity. Some people just have a huge difficulty understanding what it can do for them, and constantly refer to it as simple KVM switches or Multimonitors. Used to drive me crazy.

To put it bluntly, after using multiplicity, i'd rather have my arm chopped off than do without it. I'm not kidding.

Hehe.
Reply #44 from WinCustomize Forums Top
It is like Multi-Monitor. Just with the power of 2 or more machines.

Like said in another thread :

I have a stand-alone main machine and 3 other machines connected to a KVM-Switch with a secondary monitor, Mouse and Keyboard. This is nevertheless quite handy. Using Synergy at the moment, but I think this one is worth a switch.
Reply #45 from WinCustomize Forums Top
$70 for the pro version?!! If they're going to be targeting engineering firms and the like, they could get away with charging a WHOLE lot more which will allow them to develop even better and cheaper programs for the lot of us!
Reply #46 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Requires: Windows 2000 or Windows XP.


On both machines or just the machine that multiplicity is installed on?
Reply #47 from WinCustomize Forums Top

32-bit Windows XP, 2000, or 2003 is required for the primary machine (the one with the keyboard and mouse).

The secondaries can be 32-bit XP, 2000, or 2003 at present. The installer needs some updates, but before 1.0, it'll support 64-bit XP and 2003 as secondaries. Post 1.0, 64-bit XP/2003 should be able to be primary's as well.

OS X support as a secondary is in development. Linux, we'll see what happens in the future.

Multiplicity does not support Windows 95, 98, ME, or NT4.

Reply #48 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Kobrano: I do understand what Multiplicity does. You're haughtiness doesn't help the product though.

Multiplicity is basically a combination of K(no-V)M and some remote desktop features into a somewhat unique product. The K and the M are, in fact, shared, contrary to your protests. If you have one peripheral that can influence multiple machines, you are sharing that peripheral.

At any rate, I read Frogboy other article and find that many of the questions posed are also solveable through either KVMs and/or multimonitor setups.

To the smart buyer, Multiplicity will only be of benefit in scenarios where there are:

a) Few computers, likely four or less. Any more, and the cost of that many monitors will heavily weigh in on the 'con' side.
c) One user executing multiple tasks where one or more said tasks must (or really should) occur in the same time. (concurrency)
d) And/or, the same user executing tasks where one or more said tasks take some time and tend to occur at the same time and consume a lot of one system's resources.

This is a very rare occurence indeed. I'm a developer and think that I could maybe make use of Multiplicity. But, I realize that my computing habit and those like me constitute a small market.

Somehow, I think chopped arms are more frequent in the general market.

- alphadog
Reply #49 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I use multiplicity for simple things that used to be highly annoying.. For example, ever install a product on one computer, then type in a rediculously long CD-Key. Then 2 minutes later you want to install the same product on the computer next to it, and don't want to retype all of that? Clip and Paste between machines solves this quite nicely.

Or for example, I will be on one computer messing around, my wife will be on the other, and she will run into trouble, or not know what to click on in whatever program she is working in. I just swing my mouse over to that machine, and do it for her or show her how.

I have dozens of day to day examples of things like this.. You really start to take this stuff for granted after installing Multiplicity. Seriously, I consider it as essential to my computing as having a desk chair. But maybe i'm different? People I show Multiplicity to, seem to fall out of their chair in excitement and are clamouring to know where this cool application can be purchased.
Reply #50 from WinCustomize Forums Top
OS X support as a secondary


WOW, oh please let it come quickly. This would MAKE it the best value of all. (I can never seem to get synergy to work on osx)