Synergy 6.0a release

If you’re feeling bold — or perhaps just want something for free — the new alpha preview of the next version of Synergy (6.0a) is now out. Synergy is a lightweight, customizable iTunes controller.

This is a development release targeting (and requiring) OS X 10.9 Mavericks and is 64-bit only (ie. it will only run on Macs capable of running 64-bit applications). Also, it’s now free. The source code has been free for some time, having been released under the BSD license in February 2012, and now for the first time a totally free binary executable is being made available too.

The download page continues to have versions of Synergy that work on older versions of OS X. Note that these are still shareware and will remain as such (on my current machine I don’t have the SDKs to build free packages that run on older versions of the operating system), but if you’d like a complimentary license, you can use free@wincent.com as your registration email address and SYN-100-dce6-7589-307e-0497-98c7 as your serial number.

Why is Synergy now free? Well, like I noted in the open source announcement, my work commitments mean that I haven’t been able to give it the attention that it deserves. Many people still find it useful, but it’s no longer something I can actively support. Back in its heyday it was highly polished and had a lot of then-innovative features. But as the years have gone by, more of its functionality has been baked into the OS and into iTunes, and it hasn’t kept abreast with the technology (such as Retina displays). I’d like to make it into something much better, but realistically, it will likely remain what it is.

A full changelog appears here. The version number has been bumped to 6.0a to indicate that this release breaks compatibility with older versions of the OS.

You can download the new release from here (direct link).