Synergy - Any free alternatives?

[IT_Man_Dan]

Hi all,

 

Quick question. Does anyone know of any free Mouse and keyboard sharing software like Synergy?

 

Thanks

[Arthur]

https://github.com/debauchee/barrier

 

Barrier is KVM software forked from Symless's synergy 1.9 codebase. Synergy was a commercialized reimplementation of the original CosmoSynergy written by Chris Schoeneman.

 

What's different?

Whereas synergy has moved beyond its goals from the 1.x era, Barrier aims to maintain that simplicity. Barrier will let you use your keyboard and mouse from machine A to control machine B (or more). It's that simple.

 

There's also Logitech Flow if you have a suitable mouse made by them.

 

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/06/logitech-mx-master-2s-mx-anywhere-2s-review

 

You simply pair the mouse with each computer you want to use (either via Bluetooth, or the included “Unifying” dongle, although you need a dongle for each computer if you want to use that) and enable Flow. So long as the computers are on the same network, Flow works instantly—you drag the cursor to the edge of the screen and it appears on the other computer. You can arrange the computers however you like, similar to how you would set up multiple monitors in Windows (incidentally, it works with multiple monitors too), and enable or disable screen corners to switch, or require holding down the Ctrl key to switch.

 

Best of all, you can copy and paste between the two computers. That includes files of any size, as well as text. Logitech keyboards like the K780 and K380 also work with Flow and will switch between computers based on wherever the mouse cursor is located. Having written this review flitting between a MacBook Pro and a Windows desktop, I can confirm that the Flow works brilliantly. It took less than a minute to get everything up and running.

Edited November 29, 2018 by Arthur