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How can we improve Proton VPN?

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'Linux variety' has been merged into this idea

Submit Linux package updates in official distro repos

Proton VPN is open source and uses well-known and established components of the NetworkManager stack. Due to these two things, there is virtually nothing standing in the way of the Proton VPN team from building and submitting packages officially to Linux distributions like Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, EPEL, etc. Proton VPN is further enhanced by packaging upstream by increasing the availability of Proton VPN software packages in the global software package mirroring network (deterring censorship) and benefiting from improved transparency and openness by building packages through distribution-supported build systems, which are often reproducible.

The policies of most distros are friendly to this since the Proton VPN Linux pieces use Open Source licenses. A community-supported Fedora Proton packaging SIG already exists.

Implementing this is both a matter of technical expertise but also being able to navigate and collaborate with other communities. Proton engineers would submit package updates directly to Linux build systems and benefit from being stakeholders in the distribution end of software production. This also gets Proton engineers closer to user feedback and bug reports.

(Not to be biased, but I get copied on bug reports for Proton VPN bugs in Fedora and I am not always sure how to best route that feedback from distro users back to upstream developers.)

One idea for the Proton-hosted repos is that they could still be provided, but for beta or experimental users. This way, Proton still maintains a mechanism for shipping updates extremely fast to end users without distro build systems and update policies, but the users who participate with those repos could be closer to the in-development versions, while users subscribed to updates on their favorite distros would receive them normally through stable update repos.

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  • Kristofer Borgström commented  ·   ·  Report

    Manual downloading of deb files in 2025 seems completely outdated. It's literally the only app that I use that doesn't come packaged requiring manual download of an app feels like the 1990's. You already build debs and rpms, uploading them to a repo shouldn't be very hard. Pretty please

  • [Deleted User] commented  ·   ·  Report

    Please Proton as you changed this to "UNDER REVIEW", if you agree to do this, do the same with all your apps please!🙏🙏 (afaik all your flatpacks are not signed under your name/property)

  • Mr. Beedell, Roke Julian Lockhart (RJLB) commented  ·   ·  Report

    Flatpak and AppImage are immensely different. They shouldn't be conflated into a single issue. I would find an AppImage useless, but a Flatpak package of much use. FP is more akin to a Windows MSIX, whereas an AppImage is more akin to a macOS DMG.

    Irrespective, I agree with "vj" that native packages are ideal.

  • Daniel commented  ·   ·  Report

    Why would something like this take too long to at least be considered?

  • GizmoChicken commented  ·   ·  Report

    Others my disagree, but as far as I'm concerned, once Proton provides "official" flatplak support, Proton can begin the process of deprecating support for deb and rpm packages.

    I'll add that, being an Ubuntu user on some (but not all) of my Linux setups, having "official" snap support would also be nice, but having "official" flatplak support is *much* more important to me.

    Regarding official flatpak support, please see the suggestion found here: https://protonmail.uservoice.com/forums/945460-general-ideas/suggestions/46955335

  • Reihera commented  ·   ·  Report

    The packages for majority of Proton apps within the AUR (Arch User Repository) are either out of date or do not work anymore. For example, the current version of ProtonMail is 1.71, and the latest version on the AUR is 1.61, the ProtonVPN app is completely non-functional and abandoned (I need to connect directly using NetworkManager, meaning I cannot use all of the features of ProtonVPN to their full potential), etc. As devices like the Steam Deck, which are based on Arch, are gaining popularity. Especially in a world that's becoming increasingly more privacy aware than ever, with people switching to Linux in droves, it feels like a missed opportunity.

  • GizmoChicken commented  ·   ·  Report

    I'd be happy with an *official* flatpak and/or an *official* snap.

  • Thomas commented  ·   ·  Report

    Please create a flatpak package for ProtonVPN, or even an appimage.

  • Ibanez commented  ·   ·  Report

    Official ProtonVPN Linux App according to https://protonvpn.com/support/linux-vpn-setup/ supports the following distribution combinations:
    * Debian GNOME
    * Fedora GNOME
    * Ubuntu GNOME

    This is very one sided, each of them uses GNOME. I think adding variety with XFCE and KDE would be useful support.

    Debian and Ubuntu are distributions in the same stream supporting more streams for example Arch would be useful.
    Or at least target different package managers, the current supported list probably only uploads the package to APT and DNF.
    Adding Pacman/AUR and maybe Zipper or Portage would be very useful to support the Linux communities.

  • full name commented  ·   ·  Report

    I have tried to install protonvpn on Ubuntu 20.04.6 and have been unable to deal with the broken installation which tells me that I have components which cannot be installed. But I don't see protonVPN explaining which distros and versions they support. When I asked for help I was told that I need to use a most recent version of Ubuntu - but for some specific reasons I cant. This is a real mess IMHO espcially since the Ubuntu version I am using has not come out of support - although it will in April of 2025

  • NGByrd commented  ·   ·  Report

    Just to add, if you add support for Arch you are also supporting all the other distros based on Arch.

  • Peter commented  ·   ·  Report

    Yes this would be perfect cause I love proton VPN but cannot use it on my Linux machine

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Report

    Hello,

    In my eyes, Arch Linux is striding to be a Linux distribution that comes with sane defaults and lets the control in the hands of the user. While this may lead to a less secure operating system in the hands of less experienced users, this does enables it to be a viable choice when security and privacy is important.

    The active community of Arch Linux is quite enormous, even when compared to giants like Ubuntu and RHEL. Many of the latest versions of mainstream packages are easy to find with pacman, while if that does not suffice, there are git repositories that can be pulled, built and istalled with makepkg in a collection called the Archlinux User Repository. There are currently a few versions of the Protonmail applications to find there:

    yochananmarqos/proton-mail 1.0.6-1
    Proton official desktop application for Proton Mail and Proton Calendar
    yochananmarqos/proton-mail-bin 1.0.6-1
    Proton official desktop application for Proton Mail and Proton Calendar

    Paragoumba/proton-pass 1.22.0-1
    Open-source password manager for effortless protection. Securely store, share and auto-login your accounts with Proton Pass, using end-to-end encryption trusted by millions.
    brianrobt/proton-pass-bin 1.22.0-1
    Open-source password manager for effortless protection. Securely store, share and auto-login your accounts with Proton Pass, using end-to-end encryption trusted by millions.

    ali.molaei/proton-vpn-gtk-app 4.4.3-1
    ProtonVPN GTK app, Maintained by Community
    ali.molaei/python-proton-vpn-api-core 0.30.0-1
    The proton-vpn-core-api acts as a facade to the other Proton VPN components, exposing a uniform API to the available Proton VPN services.

    [!] No search results found for "proton-calendar".
    [!] No search results found for "proton-drive".
    [!] No search results found for "proton-wallet".

    This is made possible by contributors that are either taking the .deb that you are distributing and packing them up in the arch repositories, or building them from 0 and maintaining them.

    So to my feature request, could you try to include the protonmail apps for Linux in the mainstream Arch Linux repositories, or at least officially in the Archlinux User Repository? I understand you already have PKGBUILD files so the latter should be really easy to do.

    Considering your position on open source, I am sure the main Arch Linux contributors would not mind being contacted by someone from the Protonmail team.

    More information:

    What is Arch Linux - Arch Wiki
    https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Arch_Linux

    Arch compared to other distributions - Arch Wiki
    https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Arch_compared_to_other_distributions

    Arch FAQ - Arch Wiki
    https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Frequently_asked_questions

  • vj commented  ·   ·  Report

    Best would be packages in official repositories https://protonmail.uservoice.com/forums/932836-proton-vpn/suggestions/48200693-submit-linux-package-updates-in-official-distro-re

    other way is AppImage, it requires no other SW (unlike Flatpak). Session AppImage for example automatically downloads latest version AppImage and delete old version https://github.com/oxen-io/session-desktop/releases/
    and you always launch it using universal/placeholder launch menu entry: /home/me/sw/session-desktop-linux-x86_64-*.AppImage (so these are one click updates - you just confirm download of a new version)

    There is also AppImage with incremental updates which saves data transfer: https://github.com/AppImageCommunity/AppImageUpdate#readme

  • vj commented  ·   ·  Report

    Proton, please kindly either submit your software to existing Linux repos or create own repos for easier update on popular Linux distributions.

    Currently one have to find a download page https://proton.me/support/set-up-proton-pass-linux , download package, open page with a signature and copy it, find a package in terminal, copy/paste signature checking command, paste signature, install. User unfriendly considering it is a repeating task.

    Btw. above linked page may introduce an one-liner which would do all these all these tasks automatically. Something like wget -q https://raw.githubusercontent.com/slrslr/Linux-bash-scripts-miscellaneous/master/updateprotonapps.sh -O - | bash

    (yes before that script works out of the box and updates Mail and Pass, User should set a save path or switch from a .deb to a .rpm)

  • Eric Christensen commented  ·   ·  Report

    I would be happy if there was a repository I could subscribe to that would let me get apps like Desktop and VPN without having to constantly log back into the website to download an update every week or so.

  • Thomas commented  ·   ·  Report

    +1 for Flatpak. This would guarantee that ProtonVPN works on all Linux distros with one release.

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