pia-wg VS desktop

I googled and looked through this sub, but couldn't find the answer. The only post that was remotely close suggested I make my own config files with a shell script. https://github.com/triffid/pia-wg

Shenanigans

Search for split tunnel openvpn or wireguard and you can figure out how to setup the configuration file. PIA doesn't share the wireguard configuration files, but you can get those using https://github.com/triffid/pia-wg Otherwise just use the openvpn config files. And you can install OpenVPN for Android on your tv. Copy the configuration files over and connect.

Never used their linux desktop client, I wrote a shell script instead

Nope, I made my own because PIA's clients are a mess :P

Gotta make your own configs

Gotta poke their API

I wrote my own fwiw

Seems like a reasonable assumption - mine's just called pia but that's because I wrote my own Linux shell script(s) to do the things

https://github.com/pia-foss/manual-connections lists several, including mine

I'm satisfied with the transparency Mullvad has shown by publishing its 9 audits.[1] I also appreciate how Mullvad releases up-to-date source code for all of its software clients, which I consider a bare minimum for any VPN to even be considered.[2]

Private Internet Access, on the other hand, does not release up-to-date source code for its software clients:

- PIA Android client: latest source release v3.14.0 (Mar 18, 2022) vs. latest Google Play release v3.18.0 (Feb 22, 2023)[3]

- PIA iOS client: latest source release v3.14.0 (Mar 18, 2022) vs. latest App Store release v3.20.0 (Mar 1, 2023)[4]

- PIA desktop client: latest source release v3.3.0 (Feb 23, 2022) / v3.4.1-beta1 (Aug 18, 2022) vs. latest downloadable release v3.3.1 (unknown)[5]

- PIA browser extension: latest source release v3.1.0 (May 31, 2021) vs. latest Chrome Web Store release v3.2.0 (March 8, 2022)[6]

It's not clear to me how much of a say you still have in PIA's operations, but if you have any influence, I kindly ask you to direct them to release the source code of PIA's clients on time, every time a new client version is released. Having open source clients was the PIA's last claim to credibility after PIA was acquired by the former adware/malware distributor Kape Technologies.[7]

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[1] Mullvad's audits: https://mullvad.net/en/blog/tag/audits/

[2] Mullvad's GitHub repos: https://github.com/mullvad

[3] PIA Android client - GitHub: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.privateint... / Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.privateint...

[4] PIA iOS client - GitHub: https://github.com/pia-foss/vpn-ios/tags / App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/vpn-by-private-internet-access...

[5] PIA desktop client - GitHub: https://github.com/pia-foss/desktop/releases / PIA website: https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/download/linux-vpn

[6] PIA browser extension - GitHub: https://github.com/pia-foss/extension-chrome/releases / Chrome Web Store: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/private-internet-a...

[7] HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21612488

In case it matters I'm planning to have a go at building this: https://github.com/pia-foss/desktop

Why is the latest version 3.3.1 Desktop app source no longer available on Github? Only compiled binary packages are linked along with their signatures on PIA site...

Their software is open source. There is certainly the possibility that they are logging what sites you are visiting, but as I understand it they have shown in court multiple times that it is not the case. This does certainly shake my trust in them though. Recommended alternative that doesn't log and supports a gigabit connection?

Looking for this?

I am building my home server on Raspberry Pi 4 B with Ubuntu 21.04. However, there's no installer for arm64 devices (the installer on the website only supports x86_64). Therefore I am going to build from the source here.

If you want a VPN that works on Linux, choose one that uses standard protocols such as PIA which offers native clients as well as shell scripts (although I wrote my own)