I’ve been using Synergy for a while now to control both my MacBook Pro and PowerMac when I’m working at home. It’s worked great, but I just found something that blows it away if you’re only controlling Macs.

Teleport is a freeware app by Abyssoft that’s similar to Synergy, in that it allows you to control multiple computers from one keyboard & mouse.

The biggest advantage it has over Synergy is that it’s GUI-based, and installs as a preference pane into your System Preferences. Install, setup, & starting to use it only took about 30 seconds. Compare that to Synergy, where setup took longer due to my needing to edit config files on both machines, and then each time it needed to be launched via the command line.

Another nice feature of Teleport include a status icon that’s displayed on the host Mac (in my case, the PowerMac) - when I’m controlling the MBP, a large icon is overlayed on the host’s screen, displaying the name of the Mac currently being controlled, with an arrow pointing in the direction of where your cursor would be. I was constantly losing my cursor with Synergy, because I wasn’t sure where it was at times.

Teleport also allows drag & drop of files from one machine to the other. I don’t think I need to explain how cool that is.

The bottom line is that if you need to control multiple machines, and have a mix of Mac & PCs, then Synergy is going to be your best bet. However, if you’re only going to be working with Macs, then Teleport is hands down the best way to go.