Andy Yen, the CEO of Proton (Mail, Drive, VPN, Pass...) answered a lot of the questions you, the community, asked, in an interview that covers basically ever...
The link right here goes to 40:02 of Proton’ boss on the TLE channel about Linux support, where a Drive Client is deemed so difficult to achieve that they don’t even have a roadmap for it. Nor is the word “Linux” featured anywhere on proton’s pages about Drive.
coughdropboxcough
If I believe what I see on Lemmy, 99% of users here are on Linux, and the 1% remaining probably are just waiting on a Drive Linux Client to make the switch, right? Right?
Please take the survey and maybe mention politely our deep sorrow and profound distress.
That Boss guy says it there, Linux customership is negligible. I was happy to switch to an ethical ecosystem, but at the end of the day Proton is a company that runs for profit.
Nevermind that this specific Linux customership is exponentially sensitive to privacy and security next to the average windows user, our money still doesn’t matter.
It’s… annoying. Drive is relegated to weekly Dead Stupid Backups while Dropbox gives me real filesharing, VPN is highly unstable next to my former… dare I mention it? Yes: next to NkrdVPN which was ultra reliable anywhere I went, and Mail is only used for the passmail obfuscation since I don’t think I’ll stay with proton and didn’t switch my main mail to it.
I’d be curious to know if the userbase of proton products reflects that of general statistics of OS’es repartition.
That Boss guy says it there, Linux customership is negligible.
Yeah, of course. I understand this. Developing for Linux is hard and probably not worth it financially.
It’s also a chicken/egg problem, isn’t it? If a Linux user is seeking a VPN software, why would they pick Proton over something with a better client? (eg: Mullvad). You can’t get a good user base when your product is so inferior.
The Proton Drive problem is something I don’t really understand. How hard would it be to develop a v1 product with rclone and then a v2 product that was actually nice?
I am a full Proton paying customer too. At the time of signup, a Drive Linux client was supposedly next in line… There’s zero mention of it now. I need a VPN IRL and wasn’t keen on relying on a free plan where I was used to pay for one anyway. Aaaand I planned to move my emails of course since it’s in the bundle.
I’d gladly uplift people and advocate for progress on the privacy and security fronts, invite world+dog to join but I can’t do it now in this situation. Linux users being underserved is how I feel.
@reallyzen Relunctantly, I have to agree, but we only know one side of this story. Companies tend not to reveal reasoning in any detail when defending themselves. Sometimes they even deliberately mislead. As a result, it’s not likely anyone will *know* how truthful any response would be - all we can do is ask the question.
The problem isn’t just the packaging format, it’s the quality of the application. It’s missing a ton of functionalities that exist in the windows version. Wireguard isn’t available, for instance. And have you seen the design? Why do other OS get a beautiful application and we have that?
If you use the config file generator from the Proton website, you can have a Wiregard config tailor-made to load in NetworkManager for instance. Or several with or without NAT, different exits and so on.
I don’t know how this isn’t widely known, it’s been there for a while.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !protonprivacy@lemmy.world
Empowering you to choose a better internet where privacy is the default. Protect yourself online with
Proton Mail, Proton VPN, Proton Calendar, Proton Drive. Proton Pass and SimpleLogin.
Proton Mail is the world’s largest secure email provider. Swiss, end-to-end encrypted, private, and free.
Proton VPN is the world’s only open-source, publicly audited, unlimited and free VPN. Swiss-based, no-ads, and no-logs.
Proton Calendar is the world’s first end-to-end encrypted calendar that allows you to keep your life private.
Proton Drive is a free end-to-end encrypted cloud storage that allows you to securely backup and share your files. It’s open source, publicly audited, and Swiss-based.
Proton Pass Proton Pass is a free and open-source password manager which brings a higher level of security with rigorous end-to-end encryption of all data (including usernames, URLs, notes, and more) and email alias support.
SimpleLogin lets you send and receive emails anonymously via easily-generated unique email aliases.
While I wish Linux support was something they prioritized, it doesn’t take much to understand it’s never gonna happen.
It takes a single look into the Proton VPN v4 client to understand Linux is a third class citizen at best.
That Boss guy says it there, Linux customership is negligible. I was happy to switch to an ethical ecosystem, but at the end of the day Proton is a company that runs for profit.
Nevermind that this specific Linux customership is exponentially sensitive to privacy and security next to the average windows user, our money still doesn’t matter.
It’s… annoying. Drive is relegated to weekly Dead Stupid Backups while Dropbox gives me real filesharing, VPN is highly unstable next to my former… dare I mention it? Yes: next to NkrdVPN which was ultra reliable anywhere I went, and Mail is only used for the passmail obfuscation since I don’t think I’ll stay with proton and didn’t switch my main mail to it.
I’d be curious to know if the userbase of proton products reflects that of general statistics of OS’es repartition.
Yeah, of course. I understand this. Developing for Linux is hard and probably not worth it financially.
It’s also a chicken/egg problem, isn’t it? If a Linux user is seeking a VPN software, why would they pick Proton over something with a better client? (eg: Mullvad). You can’t get a good user base when your product is so inferior.
The Proton Drive problem is something I don’t really understand. How hard would it be to develop a v1 product with rclone and then a v2 product that was actually nice?
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I am a full Proton paying customer too. At the time of signup, a Drive Linux client was supposedly next in line… There’s zero mention of it now. I need a VPN IRL and wasn’t keen on relying on a free plan where I was used to pay for one anyway. Aaaand I planned to move my emails of course since it’s in the bundle.
I’d gladly uplift people and advocate for progress on the privacy and security fronts, invite world+dog to join but I can’t do it now in this situation. Linux users being underserved is how I feel.
Mandatory “I use Arch BTW” mention.
@reallyzen Relunctantly, I have to agree, but we only know one side of this story. Companies tend not to reveal reasoning in any detail when defending themselves. Sometimes they even deliberately mislead. As a result, it’s not likely anyone will *know* how truthful any response would be - all we can do is ask the question.
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The problem isn’t just the packaging format, it’s the quality of the application. It’s missing a ton of functionalities that exist in the windows version. Wireguard isn’t available, for instance. And have you seen the design? Why do other OS get a beautiful application and we have that?
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Proton does improve their products, that’s true. I’m very happy with the improvements they have been making with Proton Pass, for instance.
But they don’t improve their linux products, at least not at a reasonable pace. How many years to we need to wait for WireGuard support? Or ipv6? :/
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Proton supports Wireguard on Windows for several years now.
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If you use the config file generator from the Proton website, you can have a Wiregard config tailor-made to load in NetworkManager for instance. Or several with or without NAT, different exits and so on.
I don’t know how this isn’t widely known, it’s been there for a while.