Barrier
Barrier is a cross-platform software utility for sharing your mouse and keyboard between multiple computers on your desk. It was forked from Synergy version 1.9's codebase.
Cost / License
- Free
- Open Source
Application types
Alerts
- Discontinued
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- FreeBSD
- OpenBSD
The Barrier project has been unmaintained for several years, and efforts to continue developing the project have continued in this repo: https://github.com/input-leap/input-leap More details can be found here: https://github.com/input-leap/input-leap/issues/1414
Features
- Mouse Sharing
- Keyboard Sharing
- Share Clipboard
- SSL encryption
- Copy & paste actions
- Virtual KVM Switch
- Cross-Platform
- Wayland Support
- Drag and Drop
- Preconfigurable auto-connect
Tags
Barrier News & Activities
Recent News
Recent activities
BHznJNs added Barrier as alternative to InputShare2- agustiiin3 liked Barrier
- POX updated Barrier
- maboroshin updated Barrier
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What is Barrier?
Barrier is a cross-platform software utility for sharing your mouse and keyboard between multiple computers on your desk. It was forked from 
Synergy version 1.9's codebase.
As a keyboard, video, and mouse utility, Barrier aims to maintain the simplicity found in Synergy versions released before 2.0. Barrier's goals are the following:
• Let you use your keyboard and mouse from machine A to control machine B (or more) • Hassle-free reliability • Compatibility, with the aim being to "just work" with Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD • Development communication by utilizing the open source development and release model
While focused on simplicity and ease of use, Barrier does support both clipboard sharing and SSL encryption.
Barrier currently does not support drag-and-drop on Linux kernel-powered operating systems, and it will not run at all on 32-bit versions of Windows. 
Windows 7 or later is required.
Barrier information
Developed by
debauchee Licensing
Open Source and Free product.Written in
Rating
Average rating of 4.2Alternatives
19 alternatives listedSupported Languages
- English
AlternativeTo Category
OS & UtilitiesGitHub repository
- 30,008 Stars
- 1,602 Forks
- 1045 Open Issues
- Updated
Comments and Reviews
Works better than Synergy and its free & open source! You can download the compiled app under releases when you click on the github link.
Downloaded from SourceForge. Wasn't sure about using server or client option since this is for a home network with no server, but as server it requires installation of Bonjour, so I went with client. Still asks for Server IP, so I went w/auto config. Then I saw Mouse w/o Borders and went with that because the setup is less confusing.
Absolutely brilliant piece of kit to act as a KVM switch between my Linux and Windows machines. Simple and effective. I just hoped it's not been abandoned.
It works well... when it works. However it's prone to forgetting which system you're on when you switch.
At least once a week it will lock up when switching, and the only way to fix it is to ctrl+alt+del and reboot. This means you lose any and all data you were working on. If you're using this platform, you likely multitask a lot and that can be devastating for your day.
Essentially it will quit accepting input on either machine and if you do ctrl+alt+del (which suspends all applications, including Barrier) you get mouse control back. I reported this via their GitHub and they were not interested in fixing it.
Edit: There is a known clipboard issue, but this happens with that feature disabled.
Barrier works great across Linux systems (don't do windows) but beware that it currently is X11 only. Does not support Wayland at this time. This is really regrettable since the Linux move is toward Wayland.
Works great, even between Ubuntu and Windows. I had a problem with the SSL option but it took a little research to fix it.
This would be an amazing piece of software if it worked. Sadly, it is barely functional.