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At this point I think I need to recalculate the cost for VPN and secure email. I'm paying for those, potentially value add things like drive are languishing (although I was hopeful with the community rclone adapter) and they are using funds for a lot of stuff that is irrelevant.
There is a use for proton meet but is it really want the broad customer base wants? It feels like their leadership has a vision and customer needs are being bypassed.
They are stretching into the business sector. This is important for that.
This makes a lot of sense. I wish I had a better feel for when they would shift focus from product introduction to product improvement again though.
I remember when people thought offering VPN was a distraction from improving their email features.
This complaint is getting old.
If the prices don't go up, you have a point.
To someone who is/was interested in Proton's email service but not their VPN service this may still be a fair point though imo. I don't think it being a rehashed complaint here automatically invalidates it.
It's old because it shows ignorance of the situation, and vast misunderstanding of how companies are run and things are made.
I'm waiting on a lot of things from Proton, mostly around them hiring more Linux Devs so they can flesh out that platform.
But that being said, they haven't said they aren't doing it, it just isn't happening on the timeline I want. So I'm good. If I'm ever not good with that I can choose to not renew.
Other products and features doesn't take away from my wish list. If they have 500 devs on staff and none of them are Linux experts, then them working on other projects doesn't take anything away from me, it only adds.
We've had consistent proof that they have no interest in Linux support though. The VPN and mail bridge are the only apps that work well. Proton Pass is barely an app and doesn't really work well at all (no biometric or polkit-based unlock, for example).
I think that conclusion is up for interpretation though. I mean, you could be right, but I wouldn't call anything proof.
They have not said, we don't want to support Linux. Or we never intend to support Linux. What they have said is that they lack Linux developers to flesh out their products on that platform.
They need more Linux devs, plain and simple. They don't have them and I will admit that is clearly not their priority.
The crux of the matter is their focus isn't on Linux. But not focusing on Linux is not the same as not supporting it.
Their clear focus is on Enterprise Business, quality privacy access for those that need it (be it journalists or oppressed countries), and general user privacy last.
While Linux users tend to be more private in nature, 100% of us are still smaller than a fraction of their focus. It may seem counter intuitive for them being a privacy company to lack support in the most private platform, but it would also seem counter intuitive that using them to get away from Google products still requires the Play store and Gapps for notifications.
So I take it all with a grain of salt.
Again, you might be right. They might not have any interest in Linux in the long term. But I don't see the evidence that proves that without a doubt. Them not lining up with my opinion of how they should do things isn't proof of anything.
The evidence is that they talk about having too few Linux devs while not posting open positions for Linux devs. Plenty of Linux devs would be interested in working for them. I would absolutely be interested in working for Proton, for example. They just don't have any genuine interest. Understandably so because of how small the Linux market share is. But let's not lie to ourselves. I like Proton and will probably continue to pay for it for the foreseeable future, but I'm not going to delude myself into thinking they have any interest in Linux at all.
A possible counter argument could be that other customers don't use the services you do use and in the end it all evens out, but you'd need to look at the data to know if that actually is true. Perhaps if the all-in package has become less interesting for you and you could downgrade your membership to only get premium vpn or mail.
But that aside, i totally agree the vision of the leadership only makes sense if it is based on the needs of customers and I also doubt whether they are Protons main interest.
That is absolutely true and I've been quite happy with the VPN and email offerings. I spend most of my time in tech literate communities where the call for Linux drive support is loudest and I'm not tied to all the other spaces.
For me the question really becomes if I can save by switching providers or switch to a provider whose path better aligns to where I want to go. Drive is something I've had my eye on for a while as a way to make my subscription more valuable, instead all the 'value add' offerings they promote are not worth anything to me.
Yeah. I would love to use proton drive on projects with other people. But I can't argue for proton drive when it doesn't have basic spreadsheets and presentations.
I also can't leave Google drive until proton has those.
Proton even bought Standard Notes but rather than port those features over they keep standing up other products.
(It's starting to feel like Proton is going to end up being a hosted Nextcloud)
I already have encrypted video conferencing with Matrix, but I just tried Proton Meet (I'm a Visionary customer) and it was indeed a smooth experience starting up a meeting. I will likely use it whenever I need to videoconf with some random.
What alternatives have you tried that you can recommend? Looking for something like zoom.
Not the person you replied to, but maybe jitsi?
Linux application this time? Still waiting for native support on Proton Drive.
Still waiting for ProtonVPN support for Linux distributions other than Ubuntu/"Gnome Debian".
The Flatpak and Arch (I know, unofficial versions) packages appear to be broken for quite some time, and Proton devs have closed a bug report for it as it's not a "supported platform".
What's broken about them? I just installed the package from the AUR a couple of days ago and it seems to be working fine for me.
Not sure if it was an issue with the flatpak version or AUR but it would have only one successful launch. Once you'd restart the app or PC, it would not launch at all, or it would launch, show server list but throw errors when trying to connect to a VPN server.
So I just tried to replicate this issues two ways:
Maybe they've since corrected the issues you were seeing?
That's not great! Come to think of it, I don't think I've stopped the application or restarted the PC since I installed it a couple of days ago. I'm gonna test it after work today and see if it behaves similarly and I'll report back what I find.
There are RPMs as well, but yeah, Proton has terrible Linux support overall.
Not to downplay, not having support for Arch, but neither does Mullvad so its not a proton only thing.
MullVad at least worked reliably for me on Arch
Meanwhile Linux users are left lacking features. What is this, 4 brand new services from Proton in as many months. MullvadVPN, Tuta, and Addy are looking more and more attractive every time you skip over Linux.
I'm regretting both prepaying for so many years of services and having so many email domains.
I think I'm going to self host a mail server next and see how good it is.
Self hosting email is pain.
Less so about the technical piece, but high chance a peer won't fully accept your mail.
i for one welcome more options that aren't google meet and zoom
Or <shudder> Teams
I wish they would add a Sheets/Excel competitor to go with the Docs competitor they have in Proton Drive now. My needs for a spreadsheet application fall squarely into a crack of being so little that its not worth hosting something myself but large enough that it is a good value add for some hosted service I am already using or paying for.
Self hosted: https://github.com/suitenumerique/docs
Buzzword bingo (P2P, CRDT, E2EE): https://github.com/coast-team/mute
How do they have an entire webpage about the product with absolutely zero information about how to use it?
Proton Meet is in closed beta testing.
So possibly you can't yet
edit: based on discussion here you can probably access it at https://meet.proton.me/ if you're a Visionary subscriber (maybe they'll have sent you an email about testing it?). For everyone else it just says "coming soon".
Proton? Nope. Jitsi.