Prior to Synergy going to closed source, it was forked into Barrier[0], which then was forked into input-leap[1]. Both open source.

[0] https://github.com/debauchee/barrier

[1] https://github.com/input-leap/input-leap

Input leap was forked two years ago and the Readme still says "we hope to have a release ready very soon", which doesn't sound very hopeful. Too bad, Synergy was always a very useful project.

This announcement was only added to the README in early October[1]. In the meantime you can of course compile it yourself/grab a build from GH actions. I'm sure they would appreciate the testing, especially leading up to release :-)

[1]: https://github.com/input-leap/input-leap/commit/78ca8f1ef7b6...

Oh good, thanks, I will!

Unfortunately there is no simple way of makeing this work on a Chromebook

I haven’t tried Synergy. barrier and input-leap were useless for me as they don’t capture “ctrl-alt” so my crucial “open a terminal” shortcut always opens it on the primary computer. Maybe Wayland is to blame?

Didn't have any problems with X11 and various computers - so maybe it really is Wayland-specific?

You might have to change the modifier keys on the server config. I have a Linux server and MacOS client, a few minutes trial and error fiddling those settings until I got it all working.

Thanks! I had thought I remembered Synergy being open source. I haven't used it in a while, so it's good to know there's alternatives.

Synergy is open core, these portions are licensed as GPL: https://github.com/symless/synergy-core/#License-1-ov-file

There is an open source fork that branches off version 1.9: https://github.com/debauchee/barrier#what-is-it

And its new version has been rewritten so that it’s no longer a native app but an Electron web app.

https://github.com/debauchee/barrier is the free open source version of this

Synergy has some bugs they just don't seem to care about. For instance, if you use a macOS host, the calculation of where your cursor on a Windows/Linux client uses the macOS acceleration curve, but the actual movement of cursors does not. So you end up switching back unintentionally trying to do things on the third of the windows screen closest to your host.

I have a saying “nothing sucks like synergy but they all do”. Not a single one of these technologies is reliable. But synergy is the one that has multiple times made even the connected keyboard stop working to the point where the machine needs to be power cycled to become responsive.

Thing is, I used the old OSS Synergy some 15-20 years ago, across Linux, Windows and I believe OSX as well (although I am not 100% certain about the latter). It worked absolutely flawlessly for several years while I used it and I loved it dearly. Fast forward (I had no need for a software kvm until last year) and I use Barrier now and it barely works. Autostart on Windows doesn't work at all, the installer failed to create certificates so nothing worked until I created them manually and sometimes the keyboard dies completely or exhibits frustrating bugs which only a reboot can solve. It's baffling how this used to work so well and is barely usable 15+ years later.

Totally agree. Back in 2004 I used it daily to bridge between two PCs running on one network, behind a firewall with one running the synergy server and the other the client, and a laptop running the client. Both PCs were under my desk with my laptop and two screens from the PCs on top. I had one keyboard and mouse across three screens powered by three computers and could seamlessly not only move my mouse across all 3, but also copy paste text across too. I believe a newer version (which may never have materialized before it went closed source) was going to have drag n drop across too. It was so easy to work with and remember it very fondly. It was magic stuff.

Turn off clipboard sharing, use a config file, and barrier works well on most systems.

Way too much BS to get it running though.

It works until it doesn't. And clipboard sharing is "essential" to me. Wrt/ clipboard sharing, yes, I could work around not having it available but that's 50% of why I use it in the first place and as I said everything worked absolutely as expected in the olden days. Yet another tech that has only gotten worse over the last decate, similar to the shit show that instant messaging has become. I miss the times where I could run a well-integrated multi-protocol chat client on all of my computers regardless of OS which required basically no RAM or CPU usage to chat with all my contacts regardless of what protocol they used. Now it's mostly Electron crap eye candy taking too much resources by a factor of >100 and way too much screen estate. It's simply not practical anymore. "Things were better before" is in 99% of cases a factually untrue, romanticized view on the past, but sometimes it's objectively true, and in rare cases like IM there are serious negative effects on my personal quality of life that I cannot fix on my end because the system itself is broken.

Any suggestions for Windows & Android (tablet)? All the solutions seem to only work with desktop OSes.

The fact that TLS connection encryption is gated behind the $60 edition (vs the $30 personal edition) completely turned me off it. Not a fan of basic security being paywalled.

Does Synergy work with multi monitor setups? I've enjoyed Barrier but it doesn't work when any of the machines have multiple displays so I've ditched it for now.

Synergy works with multi-monitor (for me at least). I've been using it for close to two decades. Outside of the Linux kernel, it is probably the single piece of software I've used the longest.

I use barrier across 4 monitors and three devices, works fine.

Nowadays you have to look at the logs and search through a pile of github issues to find the right solution to make it work, but once it's up it's pretty trouble free.

Only real pain point is clipboard sharing, which works for small clipboards, but, copy too much text and it takes forever to switch.