Friendly reminder that Tailscale is VC-funded and driving towards IPO

Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨avidamoeba@lemmy.ca⁩ to ⁨selfhosted@lemmy.world⁩

https://betakit.com/corporate-vpn-startup-tailscale-secures-230-million-cad-series-c-on-back-of-surprising-growth/

Corporate VPN startup Tailscale secures $230 million CAD Series C on back of “surprising” growth

Pennarun confirmed the company had been approached by potential acquirers, but told BetaKit that the company intends to grow as a private company and work towards an initial public offering (IPO).

“Tailscale intends to remain independent and we are on a likely IPO track, although any IPO is several years out,” Pennarun said. “Meanwhile, we have an extremely efficient business model, rapid revenue acceleration, and a long runway that allows us to become profitable when needed, which means we can weather all kinds of economic storms.”

Keep that in mind as you ponder whether and when to switch to self-hosting Headscale.

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HelloRoot@lemy.lol ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

a long runway that allows us to become profitable when needed

Switch to self-hosting headscale when they enshittify in an attempt to become profitable, duh

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- three@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Been meaning to do this. Tailscale was just there and easy to implement when I set my stuff up. Is it relatively simple to transition?
  
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- kratoz29@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I mainly use Tailscale (and Zerotier) to access my CGNATED LAN, headscale will require me to pay a subscription for a VPS wouldn’t it?
  
  I really envy the guys who say only use them because they’re lazy to open ports or want a more secure approach, I use them because I NEED them lol.
  
  If (when?) Tailscale enshitify I’ll stick with ZT a bit until it goes the same way lol, I started using it 1st, I don’t know if ZT came before Tailscale though.
  
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  - not_amm@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Same. I mean, I was already looking to rent a VPS, but at least there’s some time so I can save money until things get weird.
    
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  - gungho4bungholes@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Vps can be really inexpensive, I pay $3 a month for mine
    
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- Showroom7561@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Bookmarking “headscale”!
  
  I only recently started using Tailscale because it makes connecting to my local network through a Windows VM running in Boxes on Linux a hell of a lot easier than figuring out how to set up a networked bridge.
  
  This sounds like a great alternative, and it looks like it can even work on a Synology NAS.
  
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- muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I can’t unfortunately. They only feature I use is that fact I can access my ipv6 only server via an ipv4 only network.
  
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lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Tailscale never sat right with me. The convenience was nice, but - like other VC-funded projects - it followed that ever-familiar pattern of popping up out of nowhere and gaining massive popularity seemingly overnight. 🚩🚩🚩

I can’t say I’m surprised by any of this.

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- fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Would you rather a difficult and hard to use program?
  
  Easy to use means people will want to adopt it, and that’s what VC companies want. Nobody wants to pay millions of dollars to make a program that nobody wants to use.
  
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  - lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    My problem isn’t directly with the program - my problem lies with VC funding in general. Because they will come back for their money, and the project will inevitably enshittify and shove out enthusiasts.
    
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  - mobotsar@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    
    would you rather …
    
    If it means no VC, yes, without a doubt. That’s kind of the point.
    
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- potustheplant@feddit.nl ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Maybe this is a pet peeve but it’s a vpn tool that forces you to log in with an “identity provider”. Yeah, no thanks.
  
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  - iggy@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    That’s a basic requirement for almost any company. If you’re into hard coding credentials just use wireguard directly.
    
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- Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I think there’s room in the world for a selfhosted, foss version of their software, even if a little simplified.
  
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httperror418@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I’m unsure if it has been mentioned, but a similar tool which is open source (you can run the backend unlike tailscale), netbird

netbird.io

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- couch1potato@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Headscale is the tailscale backend server
  
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  - avidamoeba@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Well not “the” backend server but “a” different backend server. As far as I know Headscale is a separate implementation from what Tailscale run themselves.
    
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- Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  We’ve implemented netbird at my company, we’re pretty happy with it overall.
  
  The main drawback is that it has no way of handling multiple different accounts on the same machine, and they don’t seem to have any plans for ever really solving that. As long as you can live with that, it’s a good solution.
  
  Support is a mixed bag. Mostly just a slack server, kind of lacking in what I’d call enterprise level support. But development seems to be moving at a rapid pace, and they’re definitely in that “Small but eager” stage where everything happens quickly. I’ve reported bugs and had them fixed the same day.
  
  Everything is open source. Backend, clients, the whole bag. So if they ever try to enshittify, you can just take your ball and leave.
  
  Also, the security tools are really cool. Instead of writing out firewall rules by hand like Tailscale, they have a really nice, really simple GUI for setting up all your ACLs. I found it very intuitive.
  
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  - httperror418@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Thank you for your insight, I’m assuming the only public part is the UI and coturn (the bit that enables two clients between firewalls to hole-punch)?
    
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- sonosonic@lemy.lol ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Is there an issue with Netbird’s servers at the moment? In my testing devices are connected and reach eachother, but the web admin is missing a lot of functionality compared to what’s in the docs. The peer devices section is there, but everything else, user settings, rules etc, isn’t showing/says I don’t have admin permission (of my own account… Lol?)
  
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  - httperror418@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Honestly, no idea, worth checking their GitHub etc or their status pages if they have any
    
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fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

Join our Discord server for a chat and community support.

Sigh…

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- drmoose@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  
  everything is open source except half of all things.
  
  Lol
  
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- heals@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  To be fair, anything the GUI clients do can be done with the CLI which is still open source and on all desktop platforms and headscale is literally their open source control server.
  
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  - fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Yea, but in iOS?
    
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- avidamoeba@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Huh, I actually didn’t know this because I don’t use Windows/macOS/iOS. Somehow completely missed this.
  
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  - fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Granted this is not Headscale’s fault, they’re just using Tailscale clients. Either way I’m glad I use a roll-your-own Wireguard.
    
    I and my partner also don’t use those OSs, but it’s more the point of using FOSS when we can.
    
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Wahots@pawb.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Are there better alternatives? I was planning on using tailscale until now. :P

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- avidamoeba@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  For me personally, the next step is using Headscale - a FOSS replacement of the Tailscale control server. The Tailscale clients are already open source and can be used with Headscale.
  
  Someone else could give other suggestions.
  
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  - JoMiran@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I’ve been meaning to switch from Tailscale to Headscale but I have been to busy. Do you have any instructions, write-ups/walk-thrus you could recommend to set this up? I have three sites with 1GB internet I can use. One has a whole house UPS but dynamic IP, another has a static IP but no UPS, and the third is Google fiber with no UPS, but I can use the app to get the current IP anytime. I also own a number of domain names I could use.
    
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- MangoPenguin@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Wireguard.
  
  Many various ways to manage it, and it's built in to most routers already.
  
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  - Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Pivpn is really easy, and since pivpn is just scripts, it always installs current wireguard even if they lax on updating pivpn that often.
    
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  - nfreak@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I decided to experiment a bit with Headscale when the wg-easy v15 update broke my chained VPN setup. Got it all set up with Headplane for a UI, worked amazingly, until I learned I was supposed to set it all up on a VPS instead and couldn’t actually access it if I wasn’t initially on my home network, oops.
    
    I might play around with it again down the road with a cheap VPS, didn’t take long to get it going, but realistically my setup’s access is 95% me and 5% my wife so Wireguard works fine (reverted back to wg-easy v14 until v15 allows disabling ipv6 though, since that seemed to be what was causing the issues I’ve been seeing).
    
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- exu@feditown.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  A bunch really, Headscale with Tailscale client, Nebula VPN, Netmaker, Zerotier.
  
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- candyman337@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I use the built in wireguard VPN in my router. If you just need local network access elsewhere it’s usually really easy to setup if your router provides it. I would look into it!
  
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- 4k93n2@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  ive been eyeing up netbird but havnt got around to trying it yet. its fully open source at least, and theyre based in germany is anyone cares about that
  
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  - avidamoeba@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Just looked at NetBird, it looks suspiciously similar to Tailscale in what it does except they also got an open-source control server. They have self-hosting doc right in their web site. Looks interesting. Can’t find much about the company other than it’s based in Berlin and it’s currently private - Wiretrustee UG.
    
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  - hobbsc@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    i used netbird heavily at my last job and i use it for a few things at home. it works pretty well.
    
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- milicent_bystandr@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I use Nebula. It’s lightweight, well-engineered and fully under your control. But you do need a computer with a fixed IP and accessible port. (E.g. a cheap VPS)
  
  You can also use “managed nebula” if you want to enjoy the same risk of the control point of your network depending on a new business ;-)
  
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- lone_faerie@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Depends on your use case. If you’re just looking to expose services and are ok having them publicly accessible, there’s Cloudflare Tunnel, or you can run WireGuard on a cheap VPS
  
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pulsewidth@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I think I’ll just keep using tailscale until they start enshittifying, and then set up a Headscale instance on a VPS - no need to take this step ahead of time, right?

I mean, all the people saying they can avoid any issues by doing the above - what’s to stop Tailscale dropping support for Headscale in future if they’re serious about enshitification? Their Linux & Android clients are open source, but not IOS or Windows so they could easily block access for them.

My point being - I’ll worry when there is something substantial to worry about, til then they can know I’m using like 3 devices and a github account to authenticate. MagicDNS and the reliability of the clients is just too good for me to switch over mild funding concerns.

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- avidamoeba@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Yeah, as I said, it’s a friendly reminder. I’m personally probably doing it this year. It’s entirely possible that enshittification could come even years from now. It all depends on how their enterprise adoption goes I think. The more money they make there, the longer the individual users are gonna be left unsqueezed.
  
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Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I just replaced my entire setup with base wireguard as a challenge, easier than I expected it to be, and not hard to mimic tailscale.

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- unit327@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  If you just have to talk from many devices to the one server sure, but Tailscale sure makes it easy for many to many. Also if a direct connection is impossible (e.g. firewall of china, CGNAT etc) tailscale puts a relay server in the middle for you.
  
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  - Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    My entire setup might not be your entire setup, I have the basic functionality of connecting multiple systems into one mesh network. That’s all I needed so it’s all I did.
    
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- SupremeDonut@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Any helpful guids or links you feel like sharing for interested parties?
  
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- natryamar@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I did this was well awhile ago. Felt nice to completely control everything.
  
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- jagfirerwalker@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Can you elaborate how?
  
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  - Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Pihole and pivpn get along like peas and carrots.
    
    Make the “available ips” your pivpn subnet and ta-da, the mesh functionality of tailscale without the entire connection.
    
    Want to exit node from the server? Just change the value back to 0.0.0.0/0.
    
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milicent_bystandr@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Tailscale is great. The principle concern to me is that your super easy mesh network depends on Tailscale so if they want it they have control, and if they change their pricing or options you depend on them, and though they can’t see the data you send they can see the topology of your network and where all your computers/devices are.

I use Nebula, which is more work to set up and doesn’t have some of the features, not But if you slap the ‘lighthouse’ (administrating node) on a cheap VPS it works great. And it has some advantages. But Nebula also troubles me: though it’s fully open source and fully in your control, the documentation isn’t great. Instead, you can now get “managed nebula”, which puts you in the same problem as Tailscale: the company sees and controls your network topology. I fear the company (Defined Networking) is trying to push things that way. Even their android app you can’t fully configure unless you use their ‘managed’ service.

For now, Nebula is great, and my preferred mesh network (I looked into all the main ones). And for Tailscale you can run the administration server yourself with Headscale and be fully in your control.

Actually I wish Tailscale the best as a profitable business. They’ve created a fantastic service and system. But for me, I’d rather my network be in my own hands and for my own eyes. And, as is OP’s main point, once they have enough dependent users, the service might turn much worse.

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- dangercake@feddit.uk ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Netbird seemed to go in a similar way, though still good. I want to try zrok next, looks interesting
  
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  - httperror418@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Netbird you can still run unlike tailscale with headscale right?
    
    At least hope the backend can be fully ran ?
    
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  - avidamoeba@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    What do you mean by going in a similar way? Towards an IPO?
    
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- avidamoeba@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Nice to hear your experience with Nebula. I considered it when I went with Tailscale years ago. Now you gotta migrate off of lemm.ee as it’s shutting down soon. :D
  
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  - milicent_bystandr@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Yep. It’s on the TODO list…
    
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rarbg@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Nerds stop recommending corporate crap: challenge: impossible

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cooopsspace@infosec.pub ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

Friendly reminder that Tailscale is VC-funded and driving towards IPO

You know what’s to come.

The answer to the question is immediately. Or switch to Pangolin even.

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30p87@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
What’s the benefit over just WG?

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- Starfighter@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  You dont need to manually handle the WG config files. This isn’t really an issue when it’s just and your two devices, but once you start supporting more people like non-technical family members, this gets really annoying really quickly.
  
  Tailscale (and headscale) just require you to log in which even those family members can manage and do the rest for you. They also support SSO in which case you wouldn’t even have to create new accounts.
  
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- fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  No need to port forward, almost 0 config.
  
  tailscale.com/blog/how-tailscale-works
  
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- avidamoeba@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Easier/zero configuration compared to manual WG setup. Takes care of ports and providing transparent relay when no direct connection works.
  
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- lepinkainen@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Your tech illiterate grandma can set it up. It’s that easy.
  
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Vinstaal0@feddit.nl ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Crap, I really need to switch of Tailscale but currently it is an easy way for me to access my stuff outside of home as a temporary solution while I am on a 5G modem.

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ChickenAndRice@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
If I host headscale on a VPS, is that as seamless of an experience as Tailscale? And would I miss out on features, like the Tailscale dashboard? How does the experience change for me (an admin type) and my users (non-technical types)?

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possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I’m not that worried as there are alternatives like Netbird

I think it would be cool if Tailscale made it into the enterprise arena.

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dabe@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Am I totally off-base in thinking that MagicDNS and pluggable DNS nameserver overrides are a huge feature of tailscale?

I love that I can refer to my tailnet devices just via their machine name. I use it everywhere. Is that actually really easy to set up outside of tailscale? Cuz if it is and I just somehow missed that when doing all my research, I’ll happily give plain wireguard or other mesh orchestrators like NetBird a go.

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PumaStoleMyBluff@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

become profitable when needed

By what, laying off all QA and support staff and half your developers the moment a single quarterly earnings report isn’t spotlessly gilded?

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lefixxx@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Yeah and steam is closed source DRM platform. Great software sometimes is worth the trade off.

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bonsai@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I never really understood the point of using Tailscale over plain ol’ WireGuard. I mean I guess if youve got a dozen+ nodes but I feel like most laymens topologies won’t be complex beyond a regular old wireguard config

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gravitywell@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Just use normal wireguard, why do you need tails or heads at all?

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supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
pre-emptive pikachu strike

Image

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ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
And here I am, still using OpenVPN in 2025 lol

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qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I think a lot of companies view their free plan as recruiting/advertising — if you use TailScale personally and have a great experience then you’ll bring in business by advocating for it at work.

Of course it could go either way, and I don’t rely on TailScale (it’s my “backup” VPN to my home network)… we’ll see, I guess.

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deur@feddit.nl ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I’ve realized how easy it is to just actually run a network rather than half ass it with tailscale. I recommend this, it’s fun.

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irmadlad@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Tailscale is a business seeking profit? (clutches pearls gasp)

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ohshit604@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
So glad my router supports WireGuard/OVPN server hosting.

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dieTasse@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Question: if I setup Headscale on my network, I would have to open a port on my router to connect to it right? And also if I setup Headscale with some cloud provider, could they theoretically go and use the setup to get to my home network? I know its unlikely, I just mean if the technology is like e2e from clients to my home network, or if the cloud headscale ‘centre’ would be also an unguarded entry point (from the perspective of cloud admins). I hope I am clear 😀 Thanks (btw you probably guess why I currently use Tailscale 😀)

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gemappliedfax@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Meh. I will keep using it

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Goretantath@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Didnt even work for me, i use mullvad so if i wanted to use tailscale on my android to connect to my desktop, it wants me to disable mullvad unlike on my desktop…

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tills13@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Ok and?

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LiveLM@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I always knew it was too nice to stay non-shitty forever.
Guess it’s time for me to pester my ISP to let me open some ports

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