I know this might sound naive but for those of us who had to google

kvm here mean keyboard video and mouse, not the linux kernel-based virtual machine kvm

this device apparently is used to connect to machines remotely over IP

People familiar with KVM switches have the reverse issue with the Linux kernel thing. ;)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45706866#45713054

Likewise with DRM.

Being a nerdy kid in the 80’s, I can’t see the acronym MCP without thinking, “You’re in trouble program. Why don’t you make it easy on yourself. Who’s your user?”

Well that one at least has appreciable parallels :)

Letting an LLM loose on a real system without containing it in a sandbox sounds about as predictably disastrous as letting a glorified chess program run all ENCOM operations…

And your mom who grew up in the 1960s might have yet another interpretation in mind ( https://www.ebay.com/itm/305272862225 ). MCP is definitely an overloaded acronym at this point.

Well, my mom was in her mid-twenties by the time that phrase came into usage, but point still well taken.

They should have called it OCP, the Omni Control Protocol.

Over Current Protection

Digital Radio Mondiale?

Classic TCP (TLA [Three Letter Acronym] Collision Problem)

The virtualization KVM is the new kid to the block. Back in the day the best way to get multiple machines controlled was to just have multiple machines sharing the same monitor, keyboard and mouse.

100% agree! And I'm pretty sure the Linux community had many more (hardware) KVM users than the general population. Kernel-based virtualization should've been abbreviated KbVM.

How about KiVM. Like MB -> MiB. KibiVM! Why Kibi? Idk but its fun.

I'm mildly confused as to the value over, say RustDesk. The latter allows remote control of external machines and has ip hole punching .. no hardware involved! Any takes here?

RustDesk is an alternative to other remote desktop software, JetKVM is an alternative to a built-in IPMI. It could be used as a remote desktop in a pinch, but that's not really the main point.

E.g. you'd use JetKVM-like devices to re-install your OS via emulated drives, remotely control power (including hard reset, not just WoL and software shutdown), change BIOS settings, or troubleshoot a crashing box - all without relying on any specific software/capabilities/behavior of the given box. Meanwhile you'd use remote desktop software when you just want the desktop to present itself remotely.

The advantage of KVMs like this is that it's a remove keyboard, video device, and mouse. That means that you can use it before the OS has started

Or without an OS installed at all, or with a broken OS.

I do VoIP phone systems for a living and this is why I deploy Supermicro mini-ITX servers, so even if something goes totally sideways as long as the client's IT is competent enough to get me remoted in to their voice network in some way I can troubleshoot it fully and in many cases fix it without leaving my desk possibly half way across the country. If it's an actual hardware problem and I can't fix it remotely I still then know for sure what's wrong and whoever's going on site can be properly equipped for the actual problem rather than having to bring everything.

I thought that was RDS (remote desktop).

RDP is over network, which doesn't work well if your need to access a machine that doesn't have a working network stack because you're troubleshooting a hardware failure, early boot failure, OS provisioning, etc.

KVM can also be nicer than RDP for certain multi-box workstation setups that need high bandwidth and low latency.

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