im new to the whole vpn stuff and was wondering, on linux especially i see alot of comments on reddit saying to use any vpn service through openvpn.
the question is, why?
wouldnt running proton on its own achieve the same goal, or are there a bunch of things i dont know about?
if you can not use the official app or something you can use openvpn & wireguard
It’s just your preference really. Like wireguard is faster than open vpn but a normal user may never notice that speed difference. I think the app just selects the protocol that it thinks is best for you, so it might switch from open vpn to wireguard occasionally
The official linux app go through openvpn i think ?
Yes, Because OpenVPN TCP uses (port 443) to defy government censorship and countries around the world most of them cannot do anything if we use OpenVPN TCP (government will not be able to censor themselves if we use OpenVPN TCP) and don’t use OpenVPN UDP because it is weaker than OpenVPN TCP…
If you’re running Linux, both OpenVPN and Wireguard are available through the OS. Wireguard is a kernel-level driver with low overhead and fast processing, and OpenVPN is run as a service on top of the kernel, so it’s not as efficient. But some systems might achieve faster throughput using OpenVPN due to built-in processor (hardware) support for the encryption used with OpenVPN. You should do testing to see what works best for you.
There’s also a Proton VPN client for Linux. It is easier to setup than OpenVPN or Wireguard, but not by a lot. Some people prefer to keep their system as “clean” as possible, and so minimize unnecessary third-party software. It’s really a preference thing.
I use the Proton VPN client on my “normal” Linux systems and on Windows, but use OpenVPN on Linux systems I use for security work.
Openvpn is the software. VPN the protocol. Proton VPN the service built uppon OpenVPN (or wireguard). OpenVPN has the particularity of being an open-source software, so any company that want to sell a VPN service can use OpenVPN has it software.
To conclued, OpenVPN is the software, protonVPN offerts you the possibility to use it on hundreds of differents servers
There are situations where OpenVPN can be faster. Wireguard is more efficient and is built-in to the Linux kernel. But it is not built-in to the Windows kernel. And, if your processor supports AES-NI/IPSec-MB, it might handle OpenVPN encryption more efficiently that Wireguard.
The new one supports wireguard, but there are also the config files you can import to your network manager and use them instead of the app. I’m still using the CLIv3 since I couldn’t get the app to properly work (using Tumbleweed) and network manager leaks IPv6 when connected via config files.