[HN Gopher] Barrier: Share mouse and keyboard between computers
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Barrier: Share mouse and keyboard between computers
        
       Author : some1else
       Score  : 175 points
       Date   : 2022-03-11 12:52 UTC (10 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | dukeofdoom wrote:
       | I will soon have two macbooks on my desktop in front of me. I
       | hope to use the older macbook to run background tasks, like
       | uploading videos to youtube and as a third monitor.
       | 
       | I have keychron k1 keyboard and an mx master mouse. Keychron is
       | currently connected to the USB hub due to led lights, latency.
       | But the keyboard has a battery and can work off of bluetooth.
       | Mouse is connected through the tiny dongle that comes with
       | logitech mouses. Both Keyboard and Mouse claim to work off
       | Bluetooth. Can I use this program to share the keyboard and mouse
       | between the two macbooks? Or is using Bluetooth or a kvm switch a
       | better option?
        
         | mjlee wrote:
         | I think Universal Control (in the current MacOS 12.3 Release
         | Candidate, should be public next week) will do what you want.
        
           | weikju wrote:
           | "older macbook" might imply that one of the two machines will
           | not support UC though
        
             | djrogers wrote:
             | Considering that 12.3 is supported on MacBooks going back
             | 7+ years, that's not necessarily the case.
        
       | justsomehnguy wrote:
       | If you are in Windows only environment you can use Mouse wthout
       | Borders [0]
       | 
       | Works fine enough on WiFi, supports clipboard sync and file copy
       | (but reliable only for small files).
       | 
       | (and if I remember it right I learned about it here in some
       | thread about Synergy...)
       | 
       | [0] https://aka.ms/mm
        
       | ddalex wrote:
       | How is this different from synergy ?
       | 
       | I used to use Synergy all the time before the computer got so
       | powerful that I didn't need multiple computers to drive all the
       | monitors and run things in VMs
        
         | sidpatil wrote:
         | > How is this different from synergy ?
         | 
         | It's a fork of an older version of Synergy before they changed
         | their license.
        
       | marcodiego wrote:
       | How does it compare to synergy?
        
       | ck__ wrote:
       | is it better than sharemouse?
        
       | ajolly wrote:
       | If you are on Windows, check out Input Director instead, in
       | particular it works great if you have non rectangular monitor
       | configurations.
        
       | greatgib wrote:
       | Thanks for sharing, so awesome that someone did the fork of
       | synergy to stay oss and free.
       | 
       | I was a big user of synergy 1 and was quite disappointed by the
       | takeover that led to the current partially proprietary Synergy.
       | 
       | It was a slide, first "let's have a binary builds for paying
       | users to fund the project" then "let's have important features
       | only for paid users with a license code needed", then the guys
       | goal was to create and develop a company, hiring dev and
       | assistants... The original spirit was lost.
       | 
       | This annoyed me a lot based on the fact that it was not the
       | original developer of Synergy.
       | 
       | So, for long time I was thinking of doing a fork. And so, I'm
       | very grateful that some people did it and had the courage to
       | continue it.
        
       | surajs wrote:
        
       | ashayh wrote:
       | This monitor with a built in KVM has been working well for me
       | https://www.gigabyte.com/Monitor/M27Q
       | 
       | I use two of them with Linux and Mac.
        
       | timetraveller26 wrote:
       | I've been using x2x https://github.com/dottedmag/x2x It's really
       | old and has it's perks but it works for my setup.
        
       | nyadesu wrote:
       | It's pretty good, only thing I'd recommend is to always use wired
       | connection, performance using wifi is not very stable
        
         | acthrowthrow123 wrote:
         | I wish there support for wired usb, e.g. I have laptop and
         | surface go connected via usb-c. Not only should be faster but
         | more reliable in case one end point connect to wifi ac and
         | another to wifi n on the same router.
        
       | uoaei wrote:
       | Any tool that switches screens, too?
       | 
       | Essentially one terminal for _n_ computers, with a hardware or
       | software switch between them?
        
         | Jaruzel wrote:
         | That would be a KVM. (not the Virtualisation software, but a
         | dedicated Keyboard, Video, Mouse switcher). Good ones can be as
         | expensive as ~PS200.
        
           | shabble wrote:
           | Can be a lot more than that!
           | 
           | I was looking recently and came across
           | https://www.aten.com/gb/en/products/kvm/desktop-kvm-
           | switches... (and similar in the range)
           | 
           | Switching multiple monitors simultaneously seems to take you
           | into a whole new bracket I tend to associate with the
           | 15-monitor fintech/daytrader market, with pricepoints to suit
           | :(
        
         | muwtyhg wrote:
         | There was a post[0] from a couple months ago for a piece of
         | software called 'display-switch'[1]. It turns a simple/cheap
         | USB switch into a n-computer KVM (however many systems the USB
         | switch supports) by detecting the presence of the USB switch
         | device on either system and switching the video input of the
         | monitors using DDC/CI.
         | 
         | I've been using it for a couple of months and it's been a game
         | changer. No more fiddling with monitor menus to switch inputs
         | or wondering if the monitor is currently set to one computer or
         | the other. You have to make sure your monitors support DDC/CI,
         | though.
         | 
         | [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29608967 [1]
         | https://github.com/haimgel/display-switch
        
       | rcarmo wrote:
       | I use this daily between PC and Mac (as well as PC/PC) and it is
       | great. Much more stable than Synergy for me, with the only caveat
       | that it gets confused if you change monitor setups on the fly.
        
       | jtnag wrote:
       | I tried Barriers to share mouse+keyboard between work and private
       | laptop in the same wifi. Somehow, I had issues with linking both
       | PC.
       | 
       | One of the alternatives is what I use currently - Microsoft
       | Garage Mouse Without Borders ( https://www.microsoft.com/en-
       | us/download/details.aspx?id=354... ) which suites my needs.
       | 
       | ps. using 5GHz wifi significantly reduces mouse latency.
        
       | zackmorris wrote:
       | Barrier looks great, but does anyone know why KVM switches with
       | DisplayPort or HDMI are so outrageously expensive? It should just
       | be a switch, no complex electronics, so I truly can't figure out
       | why any KVM should cost more than say $30-50 US.
       | 
       | I suspect DRM or patents for rent seekers are involved somehow.
       | Or maybe they're playing on the naivety of the business community
       | towards this stuff. I'd sure like to know, and also if there are
       | any low-cost or open source KVMs available.
        
         | banana_giraffe wrote:
         | So, I might be missing something, but there are a couple of no-
         | name HDMI/USB KVMs on Amazon in your price range (i.e.,
         | https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NVKHRRT )
         | 
         | Some of the reviews suggest it acts as a pretty brain dead
         | switch, which may cause problems with the OS. I know for a
         | while I had a Windows 10 PC's monitor on a remote switch for
         | silly reasons. I had to make sure to lock the PC before the
         | monitor would turn off, otherwise some combination of
         | driver/os/whatever would treat the disappearance of the monitor
         | as a resolution change, and all my windows would get squished
         | into 640x480. I could see KVMs like this triggering the same
         | sort of madness.
        
         | wyager wrote:
         | > It should just be a switch, no complex electronics
         | 
         | For any high-bandwidth thing like HDMI, you need to do clock
         | recovery and copy over the bitstream at the very least. You
         | can't just use relays or whatever. Doing this at 10gbps+ is
         | going to cost a bit.
        
           | makomk wrote:
           | There are really cheap commodity ICs that can switch HDMI,
           | and they're generally purely analog devices that don't bother
           | trying to reclock the signal. The real reason is that KVMs
           | are specialised devices with a niche market. (Though there
           | does seem to have been a bit of a push to integrate limited
           | KVM functionality into some monitors lately.)
        
           | wlesieutre wrote:
           | How many plugs and unplugs is HDMI rated for? At the prices
           | we're talking it would be cheaper for me to build a robot
           | that physically swaps cables at the back of my computer.
           | 
           | Of course then Windows gets confused by the lack of monitor
           | and rearranges all the windows, so it's not a perfect
           | solution.
        
           | spicybright wrote:
           | I don't see that much of a reason you can't do a relay to
           | "disconnect" one hdmi and plug in another.
           | 
           | The computers would see the HDMI cable/USB cords unplugging
           | and re-plugging.
           | 
           | Obviously this can be problematic, but I can't see it being
           | that expensive.
        
             | Nextgrid wrote:
             | Shielding might be a problem. You need your switching
             | circuitry (which is most likely going to be solid state
             | rather than individual relays for each line) to be
             | equivalent to a good cable in terms of interference,
             | crosstalk, etc.
        
             | mikepurvis wrote:
             | Even outside of impedence issues, you can't just use relays
             | because then every switch is basically an unplug/replug,
             | meaning that:
             | 
             | a) the display will flip out and spend multiple seconds re-
             | syncing itself, and
             | 
             | b) the sources may take actions such as resizing the
             | desktop, switching to the internal display, pausing the
             | game, whatever.
             | 
             | Part of the point of a hardware KVM is that it negotiates
             | its _own_ connection to all of the devices involved, and
             | only changes which signals are passed through at any given
             | moment, resulting in instantaneous switchovers.
             | 
             | Now, a multi-input monitor can also do this, but then you
             | have to deal with whatever compat issues are involved in
             | commanding it to switch over DDC (see for example
             | https://github.com/haimgel/display-switch), and it
             | typically also won't be as fast as a hardware solution
             | since input switching speed isn't a metric most people care
             | about when monitor shopping.
        
             | wyager wrote:
             | Because mechanical relays have high impedance at HDMI
             | frequencies.
        
               | TaylorAlexander wrote:
               | Yup. A quick search suggests HDMI runs at clock speeds of
               | 25MHz to 340MHz. Not running that over a relay! Also HDMI
               | is many pins, so you would need a low impedance high pole
               | count relay even if it was possible, and such a relay
               | plus the device wrapped around it plus some profit margin
               | means you're not making it any cheaper.
        
             | bartvk wrote:
             | As soon as there's enough volume for someone to design a
             | specialized IC (and reference PCB), and it gets produced by
             | VIA or TI or whatever, sure, then it's neither a problem
             | nor expensive.
        
         | parentheses wrote:
         | IMO KVM Switches with display support are luxury items.
         | 
         | Who has 2 computers? People who can afford them.
        
           | dividedbyzero wrote:
           | I didn't pay for my second computer, work did.
        
         | ridgered4 wrote:
         | It's pretty hard to beat a monitor with multiple inputs
         | combined with a cheap USB switch when it comes to price and
         | reliability.
         | 
         | If you look up the prices of stand alone hdmi switches on
         | amazon though I think the most likely explanation is these are
         | now niche products so the price has gone up. Logically a decent
         | vga USB KVM + an HDMI switch shouldn't require more cost than
         | those two devices prices together.
        
       | mmwelt wrote:
       | Would be nice to have an Android client too!
        
       | torton wrote:
       | I tried using Barrier in a fairly complex setup (Linux, Windows,
       | Mac with all of them being sometimes unavailable). Found some
       | annoying UX issues (Windows privileged/login screen kicks the
       | mouse back into the original position on a different monitor) and
       | more importantly the Linux machine would wedge itself with 100%
       | CPU used by Barrier.
       | 
       | This is a nice tool but not yet production ready.
        
         | gigel82 wrote:
         | Had the same issue for a while, then moved the "server" to the
         | Windows machine and it now works as expected (with the latest
         | build at least).
        
         | artificialLimbs wrote:
         | Interesting. I used it on Mac/win/Linux trio and it worked
         | great except copy paste and when the machines went to sleep, it
         | would have to manually be restarted.
        
       | tentacleuno wrote:
       | I use this on my laptop and desktop when I bring my laptop into
       | my office. It's totally seamless. You tell Barrier where the
       | laptop "is" (relative to your monitor array -- just like setting
       | up a secondary monitor) and then when you scroll your mouse onto
       | your laptop everything is totally seamless. Your mouse and
       | keyboard are then used solely for the laptop until you move the
       | mouse back onto one of your desktop monitors.
       | 
       | The only bug I experienced was that the Barrier _client_ would
       | infinitely connect until you set up where that client  "is" (as
       | above) on the server. This is a pretty well-known issue at this
       | point, but it would be nice if Barrier would say a bit more about
       | errors (instead of being stuck on "Barrier is starting...").
       | There's a Show Log button in the File menu though which is nice.
        
       | roddux wrote:
       | I love the look of this, but haven't been able to find any
       | information about latency... It seems to be a local network
       | solution? Light on details about how it works, short of reading
       | source.
        
         | falcolas wrote:
         | Synergy (off which this was forked) experience: On a hardwired
         | pair of computers, no perceptible latency at all. On wifi
         | connected computers, I'd see the occasional latency spikes
         | where things stop moving, but effectively imperceptible the
         | rest of the time.
        
         | superkuh wrote:
         | I've been using synergy, literally, since the year 2000. I used
         | to play a _lot_ of first person shooters and over that time I
         | never had a latency issue with using a mouse /keyboard on my
         | old computer to play games on my new computers (over ethernet).
         | No perceptible difference.
        
         | vermon wrote:
         | I've had issues running it over wireless so instead I connect
         | the computers with an ethernet cable directly and configure
         | static IP's. Haven't had any issues. Luckily my PC has two NICs
         | and the laptop uses wifi anyway so the ethernet port is unused.
        
         | jeroenhd wrote:
         | You don't strictly need a local network, you could probably get
         | it to work across a VPN. As long as you can get a TLS
         | connection directly between the two devices.
         | 
         | In my experience the protocol is quite light on the network,
         | because this directly influences where the cursor is on your
         | screen you probably want to keep latency down as much as
         | possible.
        
       | ballenf wrote:
       | Anyone else ever wanted multiple cursors and multiple mice on one
       | computer? Sometimes I'd rather move my hand to a different mouse
       | than drag the cursor across all that screen real estate. Also the
       | different pointers would stay put when not in use.
        
         | zamadatix wrote:
         | I'm not sure about multiple cursors but for the large screen
         | real estate problem some mice have a "precision" button that
         | changes the DPI which can be leveraged. The intent is to make
         | the DPI much lower while pressed (or toggled depending) but
         | many allow you to set what DPI value you want it to use
         | directly. This allows you to specify that the mouse will move
         | say 4x as fast while you hold the precision button which is a
         | lot less hand movement and coordination than switching over to
         | another mouse.
         | 
         | Basically manual static acceleration for those that hate
         | automatic smooth acceleration but want to occasional move fast
         | easily.
         | 
         | Alternatively if you're lucky enough to have reasonably steady
         | hands you'd be surprised what you can get used to as a default
         | static speed. My multi-monitor setup is over 70 inches
         | horizontally but I can get across it in a flick or still move
         | pixel by pixel if I want.
        
         | peeters wrote:
         | I've done that for paired programming, it was a decade ago, but
         | IIRC Xorg made it pretty easy to set up. That said...do not
         | recommend :). It's too jarring.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | Mindless2112 wrote:
         | EitherMouse[1] can do multiple pointers on Windows.
         | 
         | [1] https://eithermouse.com/
        
       | rob_c wrote:
       | Didn't synergy get there ages ago? Not saying it's not
       | impressive, but what is the advantage?
        
         | moffkalast wrote:
         | It's free vs. $30-$40 I suppose, but you pay in hours spend
         | trying to configure an open source project.
        
       | zanecodes wrote:
       | I can't install Barrier on my work laptop for policy reasons, but
       | I don't want to buy a KVM, so a project I've been interested in
       | building when I have time is porting enough of the
       | Barrier/Synergy protocol to the Particle Photon [1] or BeagleBone
       | Black [2] I've had lying around for a while, and then configuring
       | it to emulate a keyboard and mouse via its USB gadget driver,
       | allowing it to control my work laptop over USB.
       | 
       | On the Photon at least, emulating a keyboard and mouse is
       | incredibly easy and is baked into the firmware, but implementing
       | the Barrier protocol so that it can appear as a client on the
       | network and pass on the keyboard/mouse input seems like it's
       | going to take some effort.
       | 
       | [1] https://docs.particle.io/photon/ [2]
       | https://beagleboard.org/black
        
         | 1MachineElf wrote:
         | I would love more projects like this, especially ones that
         | utilize the BBB.
         | 
         | Personally I've had the same need (shared keyboard and mouse)
         | and same requirement (work policy preventing additional
         | software) for many years now so have resorted to using a KM
         | switch (no V) bought off eBay.
         | 
         | If you look up "KM switch", the first thing you'll notice is
         | that most search engines will automatically assume you meant
         | "KVM switch" instead. This is what I believe contributes to the
         | highly niche market and niche prices for KM switches. Anything
         | under $100 is rare, hence used ones on eBay being the better
         | option.
         | 
         | It should be possible to have a series of Atmel 32u4
         | microcontrollers acting as a keyboard/mouse devices controlled
         | by a single host device over I2C. The problem is that people
         | with the skills and people with the motivation haven't
         | overlapped in a significant way.
        
         | avidiax wrote:
         | The annoying/challenging part is that you need to drive the 2nd
         | machine using relative motions, but place the cursor accurately
         | and keep track of it. If the 2nd OS skips frames or has
         | acceleration, you are pretty quickly implementing a Kalman
         | filter.
        
           | zanecodes wrote:
           | According to the Particle Photon docs [1] it's actually
           | capable of moving the mouse to absolute coordinates, but I
           | haven't tried that yet.
           | 
           | [1] https://docs.particle.io/reference/device-
           | os/firmware/#movet...
        
           | robocat wrote:
           | I recall some touchscreens use USB internally for the touch
           | interface. A touchscreen has absolute coordinates, which does
           | the trick, compared with the usual mouse/trackpad interfaces.
           | 
           | I remember remote controlling an OS that needed me to install
           | absolute touchscreen drivers to work best (probably a VM, but
           | maybe Synergy drivers??)
        
         | ridgered4 wrote:
         | There are/were standalone off the shelf USB devices that sort
         | of did this, minute the network part which I had some interest
         | in. I own an old one, but since my main machine is linux it's
         | lack of linux drivers made it of dubious usefulness to me. I
         | could control a linux machine with it, but the software that
         | captures keystrokes/mouse and then sends them off through a
         | simulated keyboard/mouse only had Windows/Mac versions.
        
         | maicro wrote:
         | https://pikvm.org might be relevant; the BBB and Pi are pretty
         | comparable for most purposes, so wouldn't be surprised if that
         | code/configured would work with only minimal tweaks on your
         | BBB.
        
       | mwexler wrote:
       | This still requires a dedicated monitor connection to each box
       | with a hardware or source switch, right? Or a screen per device?
       | That is, the KVM (in the VGA days) used to switch the mouse,
       | keyboard, and video source so a single monitor, keyboard, and
       | mouse switches across devices. But barrier doesn't try to solve
       | that part, I think.
       | 
       | Modern HDMI KVM hardware switches seem rather expensive; anyone
       | found a good way to "switch" the monitors as well as keyboard and
       | mouse?
        
         | falcolas wrote:
         | There are some monitors which act as a KVM for their USB ports.
         | They're rare and hard to find, but they exist.
         | 
         | One (expensive) example: https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-
         | ultrasharp-30-usb-c-hub...
        
         | vhodges wrote:
         | You can switch video inputs using dcc (eg
         | https://www.ddcutil.com/) so you could bind a hotkey to do that
         | or if Synergy/Barrier/Input-leap can be scripted it could do
         | that part too.
         | 
         | There is also a utility that watches for usb device change
         | events on a cheap USB keyboard/mouse (no video) switcher that
         | does the video automatically, but I had it lock up the usb
         | stack on my Linux machine and never really got it to work
         | reliably enough.
         | 
         | I use one of the cheap usb KM switches and changing the input
         | on the monitor manually. Still kind of sucks, but better than
         | nothing.
        
           | 2c2c2c wrote:
           | bumped into reading about ddc a couple times this month now.
           | does this have support across wide number of monitors? i like
           | high refresh rate monitors and want to switch between a
           | macbook and windows pc quickly depending on home/work. seems
           | like a lot of kvms are going to either choke, not have usbc
           | inputs
        
             | vhodges wrote:
             | Not an expert in this by any means, but I think all modern
             | monitors have support for this (eg brightness controls, etc
             | from an applet). Monitors are named, so it supports
             | multiple monitors too.
        
         | rambambram wrote:
         | Have been using hardware KVM switches (HDMI/USB) from Belkin
         | and some unknown brands from AliExpress since years. I don't
         | remember the price exactly, but it was way under $100. I even
         | contacted the Chinese manufacturer to change the PCB for me (I
         | wanted the ports repositioned) and they did a very good and
         | quick job for under $300. I'm talking dual computers in this
         | case, not more.
        
         | uberduper wrote:
         | Modern hdmi (I'd recommend dp versions instead of hdmi) kvm
         | switches aren't very expensive. I'm using a 4 machine
         | hdmi/keyboard/mouse/usb switch that was <$300. They make dual
         | monitor ones too. Tho I just use a cheap hdmi switch for my
         | secondary monitor because it doesn't emulate a connection to
         | the PC while a different input is selected.
         | 
         | This allows me to extend my active desktop to two monitors, or
         | show a different machine on the secondary monitor. I also use
         | barrier for this two host configuration.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | torstenvl wrote:
         | I use a multipairing mouse and keyboard (Logitech MX Keys and
         | MX Anywhere) and have my personal laptop connect via
         | Thunderbolt - DVI and work via HDMI. It means I have to press
         | three buttons to switch but it's still pretty convenient,
         | without the expense of a dedicated KVM solution.
        
         | durazabu wrote:
         | No need for additional hardware. Take two Barrier-connected
         | computers, the mouse can travel from one screen to the other.
         | When using the keyboard, it inputs on the monitor with the
         | mouse focus. Since it's UI based you need a screen per device
         | yes.
        
         | taffit wrote:
         | Some more modern monitors can also be switched by software. I
         | personally use a laptop with an external monitor that is also
         | connected to my desktop. Whenever I need to switch from laptop
         | to desktop (using Barrier or Mouse without Borders on Windows)
         | I then invoke the magic of ControlMyMonitor by the wonderful
         | NirSoft [1] using an Autohotkey-shortcut. This way I can share
         | my monitor with the desktop and laptop. Sharing the keyboard
         | and mouse works with Barrier. I provided some short
         | instructions in an SO-answer [2].
         | 
         | [1] https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/control_my_monitor.html [2]
         | https://superuser.com/a/1556618/299215
        
       | checker659 wrote:
       | Just an FYI for mac users: Universal Control is a native macOS
       | alternative to barrier that's about to debut with macOS 12.3
       | (currently in beta). As an ex-synergy user, let me just say how
       | awesome the implementation is. What's crazy is you can share your
       | mouse and keyboard not only between two or more macs but also
       | between your mac and an iPad (if you have one, obviously). And
       | the latency is crazy unnoticably low (even over wifi).
        
         | thebeardisred wrote:
         | I'm assuming though this will be macOS only?
         | 
         | I ask because the best use I had for Synergy was around 20
         | years ago: one Linux desktop (my daily driver) and other ones
         | for non Linux applications (or ones I didn't want to pollute my
         | system with).
         | 
         | Over the years I've used it for Outlook (connecting to
         | Exchange), Lotus Notes, Xcode, Adobe tools, etc.
        
           | djrogers wrote:
           | MacOS and iPadOS.
        
       | durazabu wrote:
       | Barrier has been forked to https://github.com/input-leap/input-
       | leap which has a hundred more commits by the same devs.
       | 
       | The name is still barrier though, has anyone more info about this
       | fork?
        
         | jasonjayr wrote:
         | Isn't barrier a fork of the original synergy2 as well? That
         | went closed-source/commercial ?
        
           | wlesieutre wrote:
           | Forked from synergy 1.9
        
           | Rebelgecko wrote:
           | I don't know if this is still the case, but for a while it
           | was both commercial and open source. You could change the
           | license check to just "return true" and compile it yourself
           | to get things like the SSL plugin. IIRC there was also a
           | comment that detailed the algorithm for generating keys, so
           | you could come up with one in your own name.
        
         | 0xCMP wrote:
         | They have an issue where they explain that they have
         | disagreements with how barrier is run and the current owner
         | does not want to pass control to them. They are the most active
         | recent contributors.
         | 
         | personally I am waiting for them to cut a stable release and
         | then try it out.
         | 
         | https://github.com/input-leap/input-leap/issues/1414
        
           | durazabu wrote:
           | I see, I am surprised they don't mention the fact that
           | barrier doesn't appear in github search [1], most likely
           | because it is tagged as a fork.
           | 
           | [1] https://github.com/search?q=barrier
        
           | 0des wrote:
           | I only just recently heard about the synergy -> barrier
           | transition and got everything dialed in on barrier...
           | 
           |  _sigh_. The aristocrats!
        
             | superkuh wrote:
             | Barrier and input-leap are nice and all, but they're
             | written for only modern OSes using modern library versions
             | and language features.
             | 
             | If you want to share a mouse with an OS older than a decade
             | or so you'll still have to use the original Synergy 1.x. It
             | works on both old machines/OSes (all the way back to the
             | 90s) and on the very newest released OSes. Given that, I
             | don't really see a need for barrier or input leap. They're
             | kind of niche, but it's nice someone's keeping the codebase
             | going.
             | 
             | Basically the only reason to use newer forks of synergy is
             | if you have an abnormally high DPI screen in your span.
        
               | djrogers wrote:
               | > if you have an abnormally high DPI screen in your span.
               | 
               | Like any MacBook Pro post 2015?
        
               | ridgered4 wrote:
               | I had a plan to run older period VMs or even period
               | hardware to play older PC games, and use something like
               | parsec to view them. Unfortunately, despite there being a
               | number of desktop streaming solutions available I
               | couldn't find any that supported even WindowsXP, much
               | less 9x. Windows 7 was about the best I could do.
        
               | finnh wrote:
               | But Synergy is now commercial, with a stupid surcharge
               | for TLS, so would it make more sense to say "the only
               | reason to use synergy is if you're using an old OS and
               | don't have hi-DPI screens"?
        
               | superkuh wrote:
               | No, you're thinking of the Synergy 2.x codebase. No one
               | uses that and it's why Barrier exists. But Synergy 1.x is
               | open and free as in freedom.
        
               | finnh wrote:
               | Gotcha, thanks. I used to use Synergy 1.x, and it was
               | great. Recently returned to the fray and didn't have time
               | to build-from-source (or didn't find an easy 1.x
               | installer for new OS X) so grumble-grumbled and paid for
               | Synergy 2. and expensed it.
        
         | throwaway888abc wrote:
         | Thanks, bookmarked. Was using Synergy in past and was great.
        
         | scruple wrote:
         | Interesting. I'm a long time Synergy user and recently tried
         | Barrier and it simply didn't work. I'm going from a Linux
         | server (personal) to a MacOS client (work equipment). Synergy
         | has been _mostly_ fine but I have had small problems that I was
         | hoping Barrier would clear it up.
         | 
         | Thanks for linking this project, I wouldn't have seen it
         | otherwise. Will be giving this a try this afternoon.
        
       | ck__ wrote:
       | is it better than sharemouse ?
        
       | lxe wrote:
       | I'm using Synergy 1.x. Is this better in any way?
        
       | vintermann wrote:
       | Just don't use it on any computer you play online games on. "Anti
       | cheat" software tends to freak out on things like this.
        
         | falcolas wrote:
         | Only for the rootkit style anti-cheat software.
         | 
         | Personal opinion: Don't put anything that matters, or
         | _connections to anything_ that matters, on computers with
         | rootkit anti-cheat software installed. Even if the company
         | itself is perfectly respectful, there 's too many instances of
         | supply chain attacks and attackers loitering on internal
         | networks to trust such a vulnerability. At all.
        
           | mijoharas wrote:
           | I've been out of the PC gaming scene for a fair while. Which
           | anti-cheat software would you describe as the "rootkit anti-
           | cheat" software? (and is that all the stuff that doesn't work
           | on linux?)
        
             | falcolas wrote:
             | To add to the sibling comment:
             | 
             | - Denuvo Anti-cheat (used by Doom Eternal's multiplayer
             | mode)
             | 
             | - Vanguard for Valorant
             | 
             | I refer to them as rootkits since they install Ring-0
             | kernel modules that are updated outside of your control.
        
             | thoughtpalette wrote:
             | CoD has Ricochet:
             | https://www.callofduty.com/warzone/ricochet
             | 
             | ESEA for CS:GO: https://play.esea.net/client
             | 
             | I've heard similar ones for Valorant, etc.
        
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