I have some desktops (the tower kind) lying around and I’m wondering if there’s a way that I can connect them all to one display and combine their computational power or at least make them all accessible in one place. I want to get into server hosting but only have one monitor. They’re currently running LMDE.

Any ideas?

  • anton
    5·
    4 days ago

    I’m wondering if there’s a way [to] combine their computational power.

    Only if your problem can be be split up reasonably, otherwise you will spend more time waiting for data to move.
    Where it can work: video encoding, CI pipelines, data analysis
    Where it won’t work: interactive stuff, most single file operations

    I want to get into server hosting […]

    Then you don’t need another reason to do it.

    [If] I can connect them all to one display [or] make them all accessible in one place.

    You can either get a hardware switch or chose a primary computer and connect to the others. For that you can use remote desktop software or be a try hard and use ssh.

    • countrypunk@slrpnk.netOP
      1·
      4 days ago

      The hardware switch looks promising. Are there any decent ones for under $50 out there or are they usually a big investment?

        • Morphit @feddit.uk
          1·
          4 days ago

          Barrier is only for inputs IIRC. To get Keyboard Mouse and Video (more usually KVM) you need some kind of remote desktop software. Rustdesk is pretty straightforward. I think Gnome handles RDP access natively now if you’re running a Gnome based Linux distro. Otherwise XRDP is a bit of a faff, but solid once it’s working.