ProtonVPN has been sold since 2017 – that’s 4-5 years. The officially recommended method for using ProtonVPN on Linux is the ProtonVPN Linux app. It appears the entire groundwork and architecting for Linux was done by the community and then re implemented in Python by ProtonVPN.
There are numerous posts on this SubReddit noting the lackluster Linux implementation and making feature requests - features long present in competing VPN apps. The last commit to the ProtonVPN linux-app repository was 4 months ago. There’s an open issue for DNS leaking since June 23, 2021 . Yes, ProtonVPN’s account responds here, but always says, “No current ETA”…
A summary of current missing feaures:
- Wireguard Support
- From ProtonVPN Oct, 13 2021 blog post, “today we are proud to announce that all ProtonVPN users now have WireGuard enabled”… This is not true! Wireguard has been incorporated in the Linux kernel since 5.6 March 2020. How is this not implemented yet??? It’s not even possible via cli. My guess is that ProtonVPN is not developing for Linux and is entirely built on the work of the community.
- Connect on startup/Connect on wake
- (To previous server? To fastest server? To a selection of server ranges? e.g. FR/Streaming/P2P/Tor or US/CA/*)
- Profile Support/Favorite Server support
- Taskbar icon without having to install the complete Gnome desktop
- The current implementation assumes everyone uses GNOME DE? It is VERY inelegant. Proton Bridge supports this, no problem.
- Native Wayland Support.
- If your apps are about security/privacy this should be a priority.
For an offering since 2017, the current Linux UI/UX is very bad. It is inexcusable.
I will think about this over the weekend and will likely open a support ticket on Monday, ask for a refund, and just go with Mullvad…
Hi! Sorry to hear about any inconvenience you may have experienced with the native Linux client. Our team is actively working on refactoring the app and we will hopefully be able to provide you with many of the features you’ve listed, and that are available on our clients for the other supported operating systems, during the course of the year.
WireGuard configurations for Linux, in particular, should hopefully be available in the upcoming months.
Thank you for your constructive feedback on the Linux GUI! We always appreciate our community’s input in improving our services further.
App on Linux is terrible and the reason I am in this sub today. Even shutting down the app causes problems where I have to reset the network connections for the internet to work.
I am going to have to switch to openvpn and try it without the app
I am also a paid user for years and am about to give up due to poor Linux support. My main problem is the re-connection bug (Connect on startup/Connect on wake). It works well on my Android Phone and iPad though.
I suspect because of the small number of Linux users Linux support is not a priority. This is a mistake. Linux users are often tech-savvy and influence the decisions of other people who ask them for tech advice (like what VPN should I use?). I personally brought at least 10 of my friends to use ProtonVPN. But I already stopped recommending ProtoVPN to people if they are Linux users and now contemplating switching to another VPN. BTW, any recommendation for a VPN with good Linux support?
Just use the OpenVPN config imported into network manager. No separate UI and applet required. You are using Linux so clicking import on an ovpn config shouldn’t be difficult for you to do on network manager. This method is far more efficient and ergonomic.
Linux Proton app compared to the Windows and Android app is comical
Don’t you have to manually import every single server config you might want to use? Get pretty mind numbing if you have to waste half an hour importing all your desired servers.
I mean yeah, but why do you need that many configs? You can have it pick randomly between any number of servers in an individual ovpn config. For my purposes I just need two configs, one for the fastest US server (for low-threat opsec) and one for some other less cooperative country (for high-threat opsec).
Geo blocks, mainly. I wasn’t aware ovpn files were human editable in the first place, I guess that somewhat simplifies things. Although I just use the CLI.
I use VPN mainly when travelling and need to choose the closest/fastest server in the country region I am in. So network manager is not a way to go.