Yeah, thanks, Matthew, for re-stating what Andy had said. Sorry, Andy... I had initially dismissed it, not realizing that yes, I was one of the casual observers mistaking the dual-link DVI plug for a standard DVI plug. Yup, that's exactly what those Y-adapters were: Dual-link on one end, and DVI-D on the other. I feel so stupid.

It's really funny. I was reading this thread this morning, and had just had a conversation with a coworker who was setting up a machine, and he said he couldn't get the machine to work with the VGA-only KVM switch because his DVI-to-VGA adapter wouldn't fit the machine's DVI plug. "It looks like a DVI plug, but somehow it's not", he says.

Then a few minutes later I catch up on this thread and it all clicks. We go into the lab, and sure enough, the Y-cables fit the dual-link DVI plug on the machine, and then the DVI to VGA adapter fits the other end of the Y cable.

Sometimes I have to be hit over the head with things before I really understand them.