New iMacs supports second display with extended desktop

I realize this discussion is years old, but I am currently looking to
set up my old 23 inch Cinema Display as a second monitor to my 2-year
old iMac. I don't see anything specific here about what application
would extend the desktop or where I can find information about how to
do this or what the Terminal script might be to allow this to happen.
Any updates here in 2010 that someone can offer? I've done an
Internet search and searched the Apple website and don't find any
info.

Ah, good point! I guess a better question would be, is there any special treatment that "monitor #1" gets on the Mac? In Windows, the first monitor the computer recognizes (usually set in BIOS) is the monitor that gets the boot splash screen, the app that gets full screen games, and the monitor that gets the 0,0 coordinate position (negative coordinates are valid), which means some badly behaved apps pop dialogs up on the main monitor regardless of where their main app window is.

Does the Mac exhibit this phenomena, or anything like it?

what do you consider to be the "main monitor"? The one your dock and menu are on? With dual monitors on mac you can drag them to either monitor and let that be your "main monitor".

What I want to know is, can you use the iMac's monitor as the SECOND monitor, and an external as the first? I've never done dual monitor on a Mac, so maybe this is an elementary question, but I've wanted to do dual monitor at home for a while, and I want to ditch my Mac/PC setup for a single machine, too. This has the potential to do both, but I'd rather get the cheaper Mac and use my 20" Dell monitor as my main monitor.

Does anyone know how Mac multi monitor support works in this regard?

I was wondering with this news...
Anyone know of a way to use a iBook as a second display for an iMac?

I too would like to know if you can use the iMac as an external monitor for another machine? If so, I'll buy one tomorrow.

Erik

#12

Per iMac page:

-Headphone/optical digital audio output
-Audio line input

I guess the input is analog

Agree. This is great. My three year old 23" ADC Cinema Display is not obsolete.

Does it have a digital audio out or a digital optical audio out ?

That's great news. My next Mac may be an iMac!!