Can you expand on why you think it's weird and wrong to charge for software?

I'm not a developer and I first discovered Syngerg about 10 years ago when I was working physical infrastructure and physical security in a data centre, and used it across my work provided Windows desktop and my personal (BYOD) Macbook Air.

If I recall correctly I was able to use it for free initially, but as soon as I discovered I could pay for it I did.

In the specific case of Synergy, because it was originally open source and free. The people using the name Synergy now have sort of hijacked it. Synergy originated at SGI.

Isn't often heard around HN that it's ok to charge for Open Source software ? If you don't want to pay for it, you're free to choose not to, but if others want to pay, what's in it for you?

BTW the parts of Synergy that were Open Source are still Open Source, so you're free to download those and build them yourself if you so choose.

They don’t make it very easy to do so - my understanding is that’s essentially what Barrier is (making it easy to use the open source parts of Synergy).

Fair point, thanks for the response.