Thoughts on the new "Gold" menu in 2.1.5
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The only reason I had to change to 2.1.4 was the Snort package.
If that hadnt demanded the shift then I would still be on 2.0.3 as well
File under: Why I stopped using smoothwall, why I stopped using OpenDNS, why I stopped using Untangle, why I stopped using ClearOS. I don't recall - it's quite possible that one of the latter two never even made it as far as being used, since both were firmly established as "deliberately crippled-ware" but I did use one or the other for a while, at least.
When "free software" becomes "broken adware for our premium product" it stops being functional software pretty soon thereafter.
If pfSense goes that way, it will be a shame. But shame is pretty common. While I quite deliberately have not tried all the versions, given that updates often induce new problems, it's telling that my 2.0.3 install is, on the whole, much more stable/reliable than any version of 2.1 I have tried as yet.
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What gets me is it broke the menu. Now the menu wraps and I have to play games with fonts to be able to get to the system menu.
Add that the new update broke the serial console AGAIN, this is getting annoying.
I was considering donating, but the last two updates have me considering other options.
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I don't see any intentional breakage of pfsense here. No disabled "premium" features.
I'm going to say that all they did is put a little button on the menu that says if you like the product and have the means, giving a little would be nice.As long as thats where it ends, I see nothing wrong.
I think it was purely unintentional if some bugs cropped up.
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I haven't even seen it myself yet - got the update email, dropped back into the forums, saw various difficulties in place, left my machines at 2.0.3 and 2.1.3 for the moment. But this debacle certainly has me asking myself what I'd have to do to shift over to m0n0wall from which pfSense came, IIRC (which evidently has a nice easy traffic sharing button that I wish pfSense did, particularly since the shaper keeps blowing up and killing all my traffic when I try to get it to do what I want.)
Best guess for my use (without extensive delving and/or testing yet) is that I'd need a separate box (probably the current one, as most of its horsepower is specifically there for Squid) to do Squid on, and otherwise it might do everything I do with pfSense at present.
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What gets me is it broke the menu. Now the menu wraps and I have to play games with fonts to be able to get to the system menu.
It didn't break the menu per se, your browser is caching the older .css file… clear your cache and you should be good to go...
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The only reason I had to change to 2.1.4 was the Snort package.
If that hadnt demanded the shift then I would still be on 2.0.3 as well
That's…. interesting. Above you were moaning about security, and the number of security fixes between 2.0.3 and 2.1.5 is ... likely sufficient for you to have upgraded anyway.
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In your face "buy me" stuff has always annoyed me. However, if I can think of a cool way to ask for money, I'll post it here.
someone pointed out that it's a placeholder. There will be services offered under the menu (right now it's just a link.)
Nobody is forcing anyone to buy anything.
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Couldnt agree more. Ads and sales pitches doesnt belong in the menu of a serious security product.
Stick it under help menu if it needs to be there at all.
Hopefully this does not signify the end of pfSense as a free, community, product … :(
Why would the presence of a menu signal the end of pfSense as 'free'?
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Why would cheap vs expensive signal bad vs good quality??
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Sorry.
I am not native to the english language and if I asked you to write any scandinavian language, then spelling could be an issue for you as well.
Again you tell me that I am wrong…yet again you dont tell me why.
Listen to what the community wants and do it. But you dont. As has been repeated about 1 million times....
Update 2.1.5 seems to suck sideways as of now and focus on making that work before you attack me for not beeing 112% fluent in your language.
@gonzopancho:
It does. This is all about money making and the distribution and user base is now a size that some believe will carry the gold pot into the bank.
You could not be more wrong.
What they dont realize is that people are leaving and its not more than a fork away from beeing run over by people that wants to keep it OS andf transparent…
Of course, on this, time will tell if people are leaving, or not. If you (or anyone else) wants to fork pfSense, go ahead. Forking doesn't bother me.
(You need to work on your spelling.)
You're not getting an explanation. You're one of the people on the forum with whom I choose to not engage. I don't consider you a friend of the project, and, in-general, I find you to be overly negative. Negativity in the community leads to situations such as just occurred at Chef (Opscode).
https://sethvargo.com/leaving-chef/
http://www.getchef.com/blog/2014/08/27/behaving-responsibly-in-the-chef-community/
Improve your attitude, and I'll strongly consider re-engaging with you. (And yes, I am aware that I am as grumpy as anyone here.)
As for your "about 1 million times", I doubt there are even one million posts on the forum. From what I can dig out of SMF, it's only about half that total, and not all of those are posts telling me what the community wants. Hyperbole doesn't win the debate.
That said, I do listen to the community, (so do jdillard, cmb, jimp, ermal, billm, epeolatry, etc.) but the community doesn't make all the decisions. The community is important, but so are the customers and the company.
If you consider my assertion that you need to work on your spelling an 'attack', then it says a lot about your frame of mind. It was not an attack. You're likely upset that your "threat of fork" fell on deaf ears. I considered forking pfSense instead of acquiring the company behind it. pfSense is about much more than the source code.
(Point in-fact, were you able to fork, then a change to a web menu would not enrage you. You would simply fix your problem.)
If I wanted to "monetize pfSense" in the short-term, you'd be getting downloads of AV software and the Ask toolbar. (Let's be perfectly clear, that isn't happening.)
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Why would cheap vs expensive signal bad vs good quality??
it does not.
What was your point?
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For what its worth, people that know me in here and whom I have had the privilige to talk to outside the forum, is not considering me negative at all.
Maybe I ask the wrong questions and maybe have the experience to see whats down the road when you treat people like this??
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For what its worth, people that know me in here and whom I have had the privilige to talk to outside the forum, is not considering me negative at all.
Maybe I ask the wrong questions and maybe have the experience to see whats down the road when you treat people like this??
Better!
As I've stated elsewhere, the "Gold" menu is a placeholder. Other services (some free, some not) will eventually 'fill in' under same.
But, sure as heck, the minute anything changes, so many people run to the tops of buildings to shout, "pfSense isn't free!" when, in reality, nothing has changed.
Nothing.
You're not being charged for the software.
The software isn't crippled.
You are still free to fork. The license for same is really simple. (Cue: doktornotor and all of his negative bile.)I think pfSense is getting better. You don't. Everyone has an opinion.
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Knowing full well I'm probably in the minority, I'm going to speak up.
Aside from some theme/font formatting issues, the addition of the "Gold" menu doesn't bother me. It's not telling me to "Buy Gold," rather it's just "Gold" as a menu for where I might find paid features. pfSense has had a commercial support offering with some extra features for as long as I can remember, and this feels no worse.Quite the opposite. I love the $99/yr subscription, it brings project support and previously commercial-only features (AutoConfigBackup) within my budgetary reach. So in at least one instance, the "Gold" menu will pay off for pfSense, and I'm happy to do it.
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Knowing full well I'm probably in the minority, I'm going to speak up.
Aside from some theme/font formatting issues, the addition of the "Gold" menu doesn't bother me. It's not telling me to "Buy Gold," rather it's just "Gold" as a menu for where I might find paid features. pfSense has had a commercial support offering with some extra features for as long as I can remember, and this feels no worse.Quite the opposite. I love the $99/yr subscription, it brings project support and previously commercial-only features (AutoConfigBackup) within my budgetary reach. So in at least one instance, the "Gold" menu will pay off for pfSense, and I'm happy to do it.
I'm actually considering bundling ACB into pfSense. You would still need a (free or higher) portal account to use it (because that's how it works), but it would be free to use.
Thanks for your comment.
And yes, the formatting issues are … a bit tragic. We'll work out the issues, and the menu will get populated with services that people who run pfSense can take or not take.
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What is everyone else's opinion on these new promotional sections? Like them, hate them, don't care?
Maybe I'm being overly sensitive, but something about it just rubs me the wrong way.Personally I think it's fine. By analogy, if you compare pfSense's model to Redhat/Centos then exchanging a menu slot for the hassle of having to manually fork every single update is a small price indeed.
Donationware isn't anything new under the sun and IMHO far better than shareware or crippleware. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donationware
That said, I do understand your aesthetic objection. I've got a touch of OCD m'self. If it really bugs you so much, just PM me and I'll help walk you through the steps to take it out of your menu. ;)
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@gonzopancho:
[…] get populated with services that people who run pfSense can take or not take.
That's the point, you can but you don't must.
I like to donate to a project (like I does to pfsense) if I can and how much I can. -
What gets me is it broke the menu. Now the menu wraps and I have to play games with fonts to be able to get to the system menu.
It didn't break the menu per se, your browser is caching the older .css file… clear your cache and you should be good to go...
I don't think so, I have 1 notebook (opensuse, firefox 31)-> no way to get it work, a number of workstations/notebooks (Win7/openSUSE, firefox 31) -> doing fine
strange…
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@chemlud:
I don't think so, I have 1 notebook (opensuse, firefox 31)-> no way to get it work, a number of workstations/notebooks (Win7/openSUSE, firefox 31) -> doing fine
strange…https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=81073.15
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I tried the cache and font-thing without success. Not going to edit files for accessing my routers, not feasible under real-life conditions