But... Why? Who asked for this? Instead of stuff like this, can we get feature parity with at least the Android app when it comes to the Linux VPN app?
this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2024
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Why do you need a VPN app? Using wg-quick from the command-line on Linux is dead-simple. I've hated every VPN app I've used, but I don't hate wg-quick. Take advantage of WireGuard support being baked into the kernel. :)
It takes me an hour or two to learn wg-quick every time I have to do it.
Not just the one program, but managing the keys, god help me if I need to figure out routing again.
Some might say "git gud scrub" but some might also say, for some there is wg-quick, for others there's a gui somewhere
I suppose. But once you've done it once, you can usually just reference an existing config and change the 1-2 things that need changing. The Arch Wiki is super helpful, and it's really nice to be able to have it start on boot.
To each their own, I'm glad both options exist.
Crazy. There are already millions of Bitcoin wallet apps for small amounts and quick transfers. And anyone smart is storing significant amounts on hardware wallets.
Release the Linux Drive app please
Contacts for phones too
Like what is the start here... The market is super saturated for this and password manager.
Seems like Proton is branching out into a lot of new areas lately. Possibly too many? I'd prefer it if they'd work on improving their current offerings first...
I don't think doing this means they aren't working on their other offerings. Both Drive and Pass have recieved very highly requested features in the past couple weeks.
The problem is that all of these new products take a LOT of time, money, and dev resources. Those are all a limited supply. There are super duper basic Calendar features that they could be working on instead.
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I really didn't see anyone asking for this, hopefully it didn't take too many resources to create. Even though I don't understand it being made I'll probably still switch to it, because Exodus feels like it's getting more and more bloated and annoying to use.
edit: I just realized this wallet only seems to support bitcoin? Why on earth would they do that? Most people holding a significant amount of Bitcoin are storing it in a hardware wallet and rarely transferring it. It sucks to use for actual transactions.
Minimal Viable Product. They shiped it with only one coin to avoid having to spend too much time on implementing every possible coin protocol. But they says that they will add more of them in the future, and, maybe, even fiat currencies.
I would prefer a privacy conscious alternative to Google Wallet first, then add the crypto stuff, but that's just me
What does a privacy conscious version even look like?
Some things simply aren’t legal anymore like buying crypto without identification.
You can still do it, it's just more annoying.
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I stopped using Brave when and because of crypto bs.
I stopped using proton a few months ago because the price was just too high and my need too small. I needed a reasonably priced family plan for email on my domain, not another cloud drive.
I think this decision will hurt them as others come to this conclusion
I never switched to Proton for exactly this reason. I'd much rather use a service that does one thing really well than one that does 20 things okay.
It's all just to keep you locked into your subscription. Now they want you to keep other money tied up in it too.
It did email really well. And it had the best VPN. Didn't like the calendar or drive Didn't touch the password manager.
I don't think it will hurt them, because I think the majority of Proton users want exactly what you didn't. There are lots of options for email using your domain, but I don't know of any cloud suite providers that respect your privacy like Proton does.
Also, I am surprised that with the amount of different plans they offer none do what you wanted well. I thought they had a family plan for just mail without the other services, but they only have a business one and $7 per user is not a great price.
Tutanota is kind of a protonmail competitor but it's been years since I looked into it idk how they're doing
Yep, I've been a paid user for years and reconsidering my choice to invest my time and money in Proton lately, and this one hit hard. Crypto? WTF Proton.
Focus on getting the basic shit working instead of jumping on bullshit scams like AI and crypto, both of which are eating up enormous amounts of energy for very little good as well.
People still can't sync their fucking contacts. It's 2024.
Tbh I think it's cool, and since most ppl wanted proton to release stupid things like another browser or another encrypted chat app, a wallet fits right into that while being something that doesn't need that many manhours to be maintained.
I think this will benefit them, proton is more mainstream than you might expect
(also, unlike brave, they are a profitable business without vc and a non-profit org, so there are no intentions to sell your data)
It does need many man hours to be built and maintained, especially with things like finance apps. Also, this is a crypto wallet, not a competitor to something practical like Google Wallet. Crypto is basically a useless pyramid scheme and uses an enormous amount of energy.
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How will it hurt them? If you don't want a Bitcoin wallet, don't use it. It's not like offering one takes a significant amount of resources or drives up the cost.
I’m not a customer, but I personally avoid any company offering that mentions crypto and/or AI. I’m guessing I’m not alone based on some responses here. They are just the latest buzz words to try to inflate company value and I’m tired of them.
I started migrating off from Google products (homepage, chrome, drive soon) and my laptop does not have windows anymore for example. It’s hard to get customer trust back after it is lost.
I'm similar, I've been on Linux for 15-ish years and I've been pushing to get off Google. So I get the anti-big company sentiment. I also understand being tired of crypto nonsense, there are so many scams that the handful of legitimate use-cases get buried in a sea of speculation.
But offering a crypto wallet has nothing to do with that. Proton doesn't get any of the crypto, and you could get essentially the same thing with just using their drive to store your keys and using a separate wallet app. I could probably build a Bitcoin wallet in a weekend, they're really not that complicated and there are plenty of FOSS libraries and whatnot to borrow from.
I get it though, there are a ton of crypto scams out there. If Proton created their own coin, then I'd be with you running for the hills. But just offering a wallet might catch the attention of new customers, and more customers means more investment in their platform. Proton is transitioning to a non-profit structure, so they're really not in it to make a quick buck, they're on it to build a solid, sustainable business.
My main complaint is that they're prioritizing Bitcoin, which is very much not a privacy-focused cryptocurrency, instead of Monero, which is a lot more privacy focused (but also more complex to build a wallet for), so their appeal to privacy-minded crypto people would be minimal. But it's low hanging fruit so why not?
As a userbase grows, companies have 2 options to make it more competitive.
More services Lower prices
And no company chooses the later.
And that's how you get bloat
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You know, people are mad at this for some reason, but while I don't see myself using this ever, I'm really glad a more privacy conscious alternative to the google ecosystem is growing.(Even if this product of theirs doesn't compete with them, many others do)
The reason people are mad with this is because Proton's longstanding services are lacking basic features for months and years already with no update in sight, and in less than a month after a (now) controversial poll, Proton introduces AI and crypto wallet in their portfolio.
Genuinely wondering, what features are you talking about? Proton has a page for voting for features, and I definitely see highly voted ones get added.
Linux client is the biggest one I'm waiting for, but AFAIK they've said it's planned, and I appreciate the support for Rclone in the meantime.
I could go on and on about those features on that page that are there for ages, but one struck me hard in the last hour: I tried cancelling my subscription, and after clicking on 6 "I'm sure" buttons and writing a reason why, I couldn't cancel because I was using too much storage (3GB, free accounts have a 500MB limit). I deleted everything on my Drive and emptied the trash, tried again, no success. Deleted all my emails and emptied the trash, still failed. Deleted everything on Calendar and Pass, nothing. Couldn't find anywhere how to contact support. There's a small bar that shows how much storage I'm using, one would expect that clicking on it would show a summary of what's using your storage, but all it does is show a popup with Proton's subscription plans.
I can't cancel my subscription because they don't have the basic functionality of a storage usage summary.
Hmm... Is that a problem with their more recent endeavors? I myself have only used their email and pasword manager services and I find their feature sets to be sufficient.
Also, marketing containig the letters "A" and "I" does not invalidate the product. While I absolutely despise seeing AI plastered everywhere, it is true that ML algorithms are often incredibly useful (even if LLMs aren't)
They've made a poll that had questions about AI, but no clear options to indicate that you don't want anything to deal with AI. From the results, less than 20% of the voters signalled that they wanted an AI offering from Proton, those being business users, and less than a month later Proton introduces (to business accounts at the moment) a LLM that writes email for you (that has to decrypt and read plain text the emails that were supposed to be stored with zero access encryption), and it uses a model that was trained on copyrighted data without permission.
Not even two weeks later they come up with this crypto wallet, and both endeavours are on two very sensitive and controversial topics, to a point it seems Proton is "selling out" to techbros.
All the while, you can't even create or edit folders and labels on their mail mobile apps.
Fair enough. I sure hope that "business" feature stays business-only or opti-in.
In a way I get it since from my experience the C-suites really like not writing their emails themselves so this is their way of trying not to lose existing corporate customers, however I do see how their lack of transparency is concerning.
The entire way that Proton introduced the Proton Scribe seemed very shady. Usually Proton would go on and on about transparency and all that, but with Scribe it just seemed very off, like they were purposefully avoiding talking about the thing in question.
On the Reddit post about the bitcoin wallet, Proton team is also avoiding replying to most negative constructive comments about it, and the very few that they did reply to are just trying to justify the walletand LLM because "banks have crypto ETFs", "other companies have implemented AI" and my favourite "one shouldn't confuse Bitcoin with "crypto"".
Proton is acting in a shady way with these two controversial services that seemed to appear into thin air on how quick they released those. I cannot see myself using Proton's products anymore and while trying (fighting) to cancel my subscription, I can see some dark patterns that try to prevent you from doing it, or trying to upsell you something.
Oh and by the way, Hylics is such a great game
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Why must companies feel like they need to be everything to everyone? Proton would be absolutely awesome if it stuck to it's "We're better than GMail" plan and provided stellar email and calendar.
Leave the VPN and cryptowallets and all that "not email related" crap to it's own app/company/environment.
Eh, having a more complete package is how you defeat Gmail. People don't use Gmail because Gmail rocks, they use it because of all the other crap it comes with, like Google Drive and Calendar. So at a minimum, they should provide those with their email. But a lot of customers want VPN, and they already have a bunch of server infra for email and calendar, so why not add VPN?
If you look at their product stack, it reads like a set of alternatives to gsuite. Here are some less obvious ones:
- Pass - alternative to Google single sign-on
- Wallet - crypto alternative to Google Wallet
- VPN - Google One VPN
If they follow this trend, they'll make privacy-friendly alternatives to Meet and Gemini (Scribe AI?). Maybe eventually they'll build/integrate an office suite to compete with Docs and Sheets (maybe OnlyOffice or Collabora).
They want to be privacy-friendly Google, building replacements for anything that can be self-sufficient (i.e. can be sold at a profit).
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Time to switch...
I could see this being better if it supported a variety of currencies. Like Monero. No reason in particular.
~~/hj~~
I used to use Bitcoin core for my wallet. But the block chain is just too huge to really make that feasible nowadays. (Also I don't own any crypto now.)
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