Barrier
124 likes
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.
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application types
Country of Origin
United States
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- FreeBSD
- OpenBSD
Discontinued
The Barrier project has been unmaintained for a year and a half now, and efforts to continue developing the project have continued in this repo: https://github.com/input-leap/input-leapMore details can be found here: https://github.com/input-leap/input-leap/issues/1414
Features
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BHznJNs added Barrier as alternative to InputShare
Barrier information
Developed by
debauchee Licensing
Open Source and Free product.Written in
Rating
Average rating of 4.1Alternatives
17 alternatives listedSupported Languages
AlternativeTo Category
OS & UtilitiesGitHub repository
- 29,125 Stars
- 1,557 Forks
- 1041 Open Issues
- Updated Jun 22, 2024
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.