> The shade I occasionally see thrown toward pfSense is curious to me.
Every last bit of it is deserved. They made a promise to keep pfSense open source and they broke it as soon as they could. I see them hiding behind it's the newly announced pfSense Plus that is closed source, not pfSense CE and it's pure weaseling.
I still use pfSense but I feel bad for ever being excited about it and contributing to their popularity.
I'm not sure that over 10 years later is "as soon as they could". NetGate has made a huge number of open source releases, and while they have not held exactly to the platonic ideal of open source (literally every bit on the disc comes from an open repo) I think we can all agree that the vast majority of the existing CE code remains open. I also think that they get a lot of shade because some of their developers have been some of the loudest jerks in open source.
In my opinion, at the moment we have Schrodinger's open source: in the box there's a future pfSense CE which is well-maintained but differentiated from their commercial offering of pfSense Plus, and there's a pfSense CE which languishes from a lack of new features and slowly accrues an ever-larger trail of closed-won't-fix bugs.
At this time, which future will develop is anyone's guess; I suspect even NetGate don't really know. Even if they're planning on effectively abandoning CE in place, a backlash in the community could cause that to reverse.
> At this time, which future will develop is anyone's guess; I suspect even NetGate don't really know. Even if they're planning on effectively abandoning CE in place, a backlash in the community could cause that to reverse.
It seems like a certainty that users will shift over to the free version of pfSense Plus for the eventual performance advantages, if not for the REST API alone, and then pfSense CE will slowly wither. We'll see, but I really think you're being overly optimistic entertaining an alternative scenario :)
> However, you are directing your disdain (about pfSense) toward us.
I don't think I am; who's us in that sentence?
> To what end? What is it you want to achieve?
I'm scratching an itch. If Netgate can screw the community that helped pfSense gain popularity then surely it is perfectly acceptable for a member of that community to express a little disdain.
> it is perfectly acceptable for a member of that community to express a little disdain.
Okay. I never inferred otherwise. If venting is the total of your goal here are you okay we blow that off or is there something else you're hoping for?
To be clear, I've no animosity toward your posts. My 'hidden' agenda is this: Because hostility takes a toll on the recipients (us), I'm curious if what you're getting in return is worth it.
> “Because hostility takes a toll on the recipients (us), I'm curious if what you're getting in return is worth it.”
We aren’t the recipients of the hostility; Netgate is. I feel no hostility directed towards me when reading anfogoat’s post. In fact, I thank them for openly expressing their disdain towards Netgate here, as it gives others like me more information to look into and come to our own conclusions on.
> To be clear, I've no animosity toward your posts.
No worries, no animosity assumed.
> If venting is the total of your goal here are you okay we blow that off or is there something else you're hoping for?
I don't like venting. I said I was scratching an itch but venting makes it sound like it had no substance at all and suggests what Netgate did was alright. To be clear, I think the more Netgate gets criticized and called out the better. But I had no hopes beyond that.
> My 'hidden' agenda is this: Because hostility takes a toll on the recipients (us) ...
Putting aside that I'm not completely on board with the hostility characterization either, you're recipients of it only in the sense that you happened to read it. I disagree with you about the degree to which Netgate deserves the criticism of course, but none of the "hostility" was addressed to you or anyone else in this thread.
It shouldn't be taxing. It's pick-me-up to anyone who's read one too many overly positive comments about the pfSense Plus shenanigans.
Every last bit of it is deserved. They made a promise to keep pfSense open source and they broke it as soon as they could. I see them hiding behind it's the newly announced pfSense Plus that is closed source, not pfSense CE and it's pure weaseling.
I still use pfSense but I feel bad for ever being excited about it and contributing to their popularity.