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What alternatives to Synergy are you using or have tried in the past?


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mcallahan

I'm running the latest stable Synergy version on my Linux host and Windows client, however it has become unusable for me - constant disconnects, "Client is dead," extremely laggy mouse movement on the client. It's time to cut bait with Synergy and find something more reliable. What alternatives are out there?

Edited by mcallahan
typo
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  • 3 weeks later...
ColumbusGEEK

Nothing.

I tried every. single. solitary. one.  

They were either overly complex, not cross platform compatible enough or too expensive with no real benefit.  

I chased the dream and ended up back here.

One important takeaway is that if you are having issues with Synergy you will probably have issues with other software.  I'm still fighting the stupid secure input "feature" OSX has.   

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  • 2 weeks later...

I now use Synergy version 1, although I bought and paid for versions 1 and 2 many years go, but for around six years I used Sharemouse, dipping in to see how badly Synergy was doing every so often. It was a mess. Sharemouse is a far superior product to Synergy, which I find amazing given the years and years it's been under development, but when Sharemouse tripled the price (see below) ... I tried Synergy once more late last year (for the nth time over the years) and much to my amazement, find that it now works very well in version 1.14 on the Mac and Big Sur anyway. Not feature rich, but for simply controlling 2 Macs with one keyboard and mouse, it does the job and does it well.

FYI my last three-year Sharemouse "maintenance" license in 2018 cost me £88.20 (GBP).

When I went to renew this year, a ONE year license was £93.99 (GBP) and no multi-year discount on offer.

Sharemouse has the right to charge what they want, and I reserve the right to not pay it. :) 

Synergy is reasonably priced and it's never worked better. And despite all the years of headache, I do believe that they are working towards a brilliant version 3. 

Eventually.

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I do see some improvement with Synergy (v1) stability when using two computers on w wired connection over WiFi, but I'm definitely holding out hope for an amazing UX with Synergy 3!

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I must admit that I've never used Synergy over WiFi, but it's easy to believe that it works best over Ethernet.

They say that that an alpha of version 3 is coming this year and I'm sure I read that my licence for version 2 will be upgraded for free? So I'm curious to give it a try.

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I switched to Microsoft Garage's Mouse without Borders.

Sadly it's just for Windows machines, but the upside is that it performs better, supports all nonstandard characters unlike Synergy and doesn't require a license. It also performs better when one host is on login screen and has actually working file copy between computers which is a feature I never could use in Synergy. Also the clipboard seems to never fail me unlike Synergy.

 

Edited by Krystian
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Hello.

I previously used a software named Neslo Desktop Rover, since about 2005.

Unfortunately it is now abandoned and its web site (<- link to latest archive) disappeared since 2015. An attempt has been made for selling its source code, but apparently nobody has taken it.

My copy it still working, but unfortunately it has never been ported on any system other than Windows.

It works quite well, it is able to cut and paste file across shares, and everything is reciprocal on it : no server, no client, any mouse and keyboard on any computer can drive any other, you can remove any computer and still having sharing between others, and you can configure the whole network from any computer.

But I need Mac and Linux now …

Gingko

 

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