Hello everyone,

I am very new and recently have decided to move away our growing home/work network away from Google and also increase our digital security. I got recommended to try Proton as it is (as I understand) a full suite of feature we would use (be it mail, productivity apps, vpn, authenticator, cloud) but seeing some of the reactions here, I am concerned.

Are there any really grave concerns about Proton or any substantial flaws I should be aware of as a new user? I also got some mixed reviews about unstable gaming sessions (that would be a home disaster for the kids hehe) as it disconnects but I suppose that is a problem of the free limited VPN connecting to free servers.

Thank you in advance for any input.

EDIT: Thank you again very much to all of you for your time and insight <3 I will investigate all the suggestions/experience and slowly work my way to a better workframe. Again - thank you!

  • Scott 🇨🇦🏴‍☠️@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    Last year I used Android (tablet with a physical keyboard and mouse was my “laptop”) and nothing else. I was happy with Proton Unlimited. Lots of features and works great.

    In April of 2025 I bought a used laptop and started using Linux Fedora Workstation.

    It didn’t take long to see how little support Proton gives to the Linux community. Protonvpn is garbage on Linux. Their app has almost no features.

    Saying development is slow is being kind, it took Proton 8 years to give Linux users split-tunneling and we still have to give up Netguard and the killswitch to use it.

    I watch Youtube with Freetube on my laptop and was getting blocked at least 6 times per day.

    I tried Mullvadvpn and have gotten blocked only two of three times in the past two weeks.

    Downloading from Proton Drive is very slow. Upload is quick enough, it’s good for archiving. No Linux app so I use the browser.

    Most of their other services work great. I have no issues with their email (through a browser) or ProtonPass via the app.

    My account is up in June and I’m moving to separate services. Already on Mullvadvpn.

  • artyom@piefed.socialEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    These are the (IMO unwarranted) concerns regarding Proton you’ll see here:

    1. CEO said something nice about a Trump appointee. He then followed that up with some ignorant shit about Republicans in general. None of this affects his ability to provide a private and secure service.
    2. Proton doesn’t break the law by refusing to comply with legal warrants from Switzerland. Nor does any other service other than Lavabit, which is unfortunately no longer an option.
    3. Too many products. Some people think this is a bad thing, as it’s a single point of failure, and because their attention is divided. I think it’s a valid tradeoff for the convenience and the price. You can just use email if you want.

    That’s all I can think of off the top of my head. I use and enjoy them but the advertising is incredibly annoying.

    As for gaming, Steam (and many other services) block VPNs so if you want to play you’ll have to do it in offline mode or disconnect it. I use a dedicated gaming machine and just bother to put it on there unfortunately.

    Also any web-connected services you use may ALSO block your VPN at any time and you’ll lose access to that service, which may or may not be important. You can use split-tunneling but the Android app disconnects randomly and stays disconnected. I’ve not found a fix for this. For this reason you need to use the “kill switch” that kills all connections when disconnected. Unfortunately this also blocks all local connections and breaks split-tunneling so yeah, it fuckin sucks.

    • DancingTable@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      2 months ago

      I forgot about point 1. Honestly I think that could be warranted. I don’t want my money going to MAGA folks, especially now.