• Having it not have to decode USB is nice, because this makes it device-independent
• HOWEVER, it really is much more of a pain to not be able to stick the KVM out-of-the-way behind stuff, and activate it remotely via a keystroke. You might think it's nice to have a compact thing up front, but no... it's not possible to be compact enough. (since there's inherently a bunch of wires coming out of it)
• Also, the fact that you can't externally power it sucks.
• Also, the fact that you can't have more than two USB devices without adding another hub (and thus another layer of enumeration delay on switches) really sucks.

Actually, the IOGear USB switcher actually just uses one of the upstream ports to control which computer is connected. And this would work for me too... often, I have at least one "unused" laptop keyboard exposed, separate from the main keyboard that I want to be switched.

Since this is so simple, it might even be possible to integrate it into my own DIY switcher. (eg. PIC communicator, hooked to several USB switching chips, hooked to one or more USB hubs, and ALL powered from a hefty external power unit)