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    Announcing pfSense plus

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Messages from the pfSense Team
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    • G
      gabacho4 Rebel Alliance @gabacho4
      last edited by

      Sorry about the typos. Can't seem to edit.

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      • dennis_sD
        dennis_s @Impatient
        last edited by

        @impatient In no way are we moving away from the community. We will still be contributing to CE and also offering a no-charge version of pfSense plus to home users.

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        • I
          Impatient @dennis_s
          last edited by

          @dennis_s Thank you for making it clear.

          Is it done yet? Ha

          dennis_sD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • dennis_sD
            dennis_s @Impatient
            last edited by

            @impatient In early February we plan to make pfSense CE 2.5 and pfSense plus 21.02 available.

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            • JeGrJ
              JeGr LAYER 8 Moderator @Impatient
              last edited by

              @impatient said in Announcing pfSense plus:

              @dennis_s The main reason netgate seem's to be moving away from the community and more
              into closed source.
              About the same as sophos and other's have done.

              If you think so you have completely skipped the part where it states that a) they don't go closed source and b) what big contributions they've already made and continue to make to the OSS community and the upstream projects they are using. I'd like to see such from Sophos and others. Or them to emplay developers for e.g. FreeBSD or DPDK so they can work fulltime on those things. Or how about putting hundreds of hours of development not in WG for pfSense but WG in FreeBSD so all other projects working with FreeBSD can grab that code now, too? Just sayin...

              Don't forget to upvote 👍 those who kindly offered their time and brainpower to help you!

              If you're interested, I'm available to discuss details of German-speaking paid support (for companies) if needed.

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              • ?
                A Former User
                last edited by

                I'm inclined to feel good about this. Two reasons.

                1. Netgate has earned some trust based on the no cost services they offered in support of remote users to meet the challenges of the pandemic. If they sold some appliances as a result of that it was well earned and well spent (see #2)

                2. Netgate has put considerable resources into FreeBSD development. Including hiring (there is a post, somewhere here on the forum) staff dedicated to that purpose. We have all benefited from that and will continue to get that benefit regardless of the version of pfsense used.

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                • johnpozJ
                  johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                  last edited by johnpoz

                  OLD news ;) hehehe

                  Waiting for Reddit and Twitter to blow up with the "told you so" posts - they are getting rid of the free versions ;)

                  I see the non readers already making nonsense statements

                  I'm assuming this means:
                  
                      pfSense+ is Linux-based
                  
                      pfSense CE will remain BSD-based
                  

                  An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                  If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                  Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                  SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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                  • S
                    serbus @A Former User
                    last edited by

                    Hello!

                    chargeable version for commercial use

                    When will pricing info be available for Pfsense+ on 3rd party hardware?

                    Thanks!

                    John

                    Lex parsimoniae

                    G ? dennis_sD 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • G
                      gabacho4 Rebel Alliance @serbus
                      last edited by

                      @serbus did you even read the blog post? Answer is there.

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                      • ?
                        A Former User @serbus
                        last edited by

                        @serbus I've not seen any information concerning pricing. It's going to be Netgate HW and Cloud service only initially, June time frame for 3rd party as best I can tell, so they have some time to determine that.

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                        • ?
                          A Former User @gabacho4
                          last edited by

                          @gabacho4 I think he's asking about commercial use. It's a valid question.

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                          • G
                            gabacho4 Rebel Alliance @A Former User
                            last edited by

                            @jwj yeha sorry there. I'll eat some crow. I thought I had seen a mention about pricing. I evidently need to read the blog post better.

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                            • ?
                              A Former User @gabacho4
                              last edited by

                              @gabacho4 :) I did go back and re-read the blog and the FAQ myself just in case I needed to eat some crow... It's all good!

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                              • dennis_sD
                                dennis_s @serbus
                                last edited by

                                @serbus Pricing has not been set, but when it is finalized we will announce via our normal channels and most likely a blog.

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                                • L
                                  Longreen @dennis_s
                                  last edited by

                                  @dennis_s will the no charge version for home and lab use be "crippled" in any way compared to commercial version ? ( ie max bandwidth supported on throughout etc) or less features ?

                                  dennis_sD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • dennis_sD
                                    dennis_s @Longreen
                                    last edited by

                                    @longreen No...Full-featured version.

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                                    • J
                                      Jeremy11one
                                      last edited by

                                      I think it's important for everyone to know about these 2 things from the FAQ page:

                                      ***Q: So there are no more new releases from the project?
                                      A: That is really up to how the project progresses itself, separate and distinct from Netgate... If the community chooses to progress feature set, testing, documentation, and release packaging, there will obviously be progression beyond Release 2.5.

                                      Q: Is pfSense Plus open source?
                                      A: No. pfSense Plus is closed source.

                                      One of the big benefits of pfSense was that it is open source. Even though the upgrade to pfSense Plus is expected to be free for home users, I'm torn about whether to "upgrade" to the newer closed source version or stay with the open source CE version.

                                      dennis_sD bingo600B 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                      • dennis_sD
                                        dennis_s @Jeremy11one
                                        last edited by

                                        @jeremy11one Would love to know your thoughts around that.

                                        johnpozJ J 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • johnpozJ
                                          johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @dennis_s
                                          last edited by johnpoz

                                          @dennis_s

                                          That is really up to how the project progresses itself, separate and distinct from Netgate - which is a company with its own products. If the community chooses to progress feature set, testing, documentation, and release packaging, there will obviously be progression beyond Release 2.5. Netgate will continue to participate both as a community member, and as project steward.

                                          That wording really sounds like pfsense CE could just die off.. I don't like that wording at all.. And prob going to throw up the most red flags to the community at large..

                                          An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                                          If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                                          Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                                          SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

                                          J JeGrJ H 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 4
                                          • J
                                            Jeremy11one @dennis_s
                                            last edited by

                                            @dennis_s said in Announcing pfSense plus:

                                            @jeremy11one Would love to know your thoughts around that.

                                            I use pfSense at home on a 3rd party machine, at church on 3rd party, and at work with 2 official Netgate devices. I really appreciate what Netgate has done with the project and think they've improved the world with their donations to open source pfSense.

                                            The first Q&A I referenced sounds like pfSense CE will depend on community developers going forward. Netgate wrote that future "releases" and "progression" will happen "if the community chooses to progress" "separate from Netgate". It kind of contradicts what Netgate wrote in several other places, so maybe the answer to that Q was just not written as clearly as intended. If it's true though, we all know how it goes with most open source projects when their primary developers leave - the projects die. Netgate is 100% entitled to earn profits and they have no obligation to continue donating to pfSense as they used to, but it's still sad that the biggest contributors to pfSense are hinting that they're moving on.

                                            As to the closed source QA, I think many IT people would agree that being open source is important for security products. So upgrading to the new Plus version to get its benefits is tempting, but so is staying with the old CE and hoping that some other organization picks it up to carry the torch for a while like Netgate used to.

                                            Again, I'm not complaining. I'm just pointing out these QAs on the Netgate FAQ that jumped out at me when I read them. Those things are more clear on the FAQ than on the press release.

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