Here is the problem I see with CE… In either something on their site, or in a reddit thread from a Netgate employee, they said CE will not be getting the new network stack that paid versions are getting. I should have grabbed that statement when I saw it. If this is really true, then they are going to slowly deprecate core functions until it just doesn’t work.
Sorry to be such a pessimist, I’ve lived a few years in this world and I’ve seen stuff like this happen too often. They can’t just kill it outright, that would create massive backlash. They will slowly let it die and users will slowly migrate away from the headaches to something else. Yes I hope I’m wrong, but history repeats here. I don’t see CE getting to version 3.0, I’d be surprised if it makes it to 2.9.
And yes, I do have paid opensource tools that I use. I did this simply because I wanted to try and do a little to help the project stay working. I’d guess that most of us do have some paid stuff, and other stuff we would be happy to pay if the price was a little more reasonable for our small use case. I’ll also admit that I couldn’t make my department run without a bunch of free opensource stuff, the 120 odd students and 4 more full time employees doesn’t leave a lot of green for paying some of these things and I wish there were better discounts on a couple core items.
All that said, I’m still leaving the door open to buying a Netgate hardware device, as long as it comes with lifetime software or cheap enough contract. I may also look at Sophos for a paid product, or maybe Untangle. Opnsense has a paid NGFW third party add in that might be worth looking at too.
for those in IT, very similar to what Hashicorp just did with Terraform…
For some time I left my pfSense CE on CE … 2.x and did not want to change from there, thenI though ahh damm, everyone said it’s good/better to be on the Home/Lab free option, and ye… not long and now this…
would if they would allow a back out/down grade to CE… they’ve already hinted that if you have to restore (rebuild due to hw problems) you can’t and you will need to first get the commercial license…
Actually, the argument for supporting BSD is weak. You’re really just supporting negate with this price bump. Which is fine, but I think end users should not be thinking they need to pitch in to support the kernel.
If a vendor wants to use a kernel that needs heavy investment on their part to survive, then that is a business decision they make. Not something end users need to be thinking about, not for a kernel in 2023. They could drop their kernel contributions to near zero (arguably not zero) if they wanted to. Then they could support all the other opensource software they rely on that nobody thinks about. Or just put the extra cash in their pocket like most companies.
Since plus still works and we may still have the ability to get updates in the near term, I will wait to see how this plays out. I see no reason to jump the gun and move to CE at the moment or jump ship.
I run pfSense+ (home lab ver) on a protectli box currently… can someone clarify, if I buy a Netgate box, does a pfSense+ license come with it? And if yes, do you need to renew the license annually or ?
Yeah this is my takeaway as well. If you’re the lone supporter of an OS… maybe it’s time to find a new OS. IX Systems already reached the same conclusion with TrueNAS–support will always be a huge uphill battle when nobody else wants to help.
Agreed. Of course I only upgraded to + a few months ago. My only (half jokingly) worry now, is they will shut 'er down and pull the plug while I’m away, and the network goes down while my wife is working on her dissertation… lol.
Just watched Tom’s latest video where he covers the licensing issue. I think he is still conflating netgate with freebsd. Which on one level is fine, but on most levels this is merely justification for a favored company raising prices. Which is OK on all levels if you like the company and like the product. But arguing they need to raise prices to support freebsd is dubious. If you have a kernel fetish please support the kernel directly, but supporting netgate is a bad way to support freebsd.
Companies do what is in their best interest. I can see a day in 2027 where netgate pulls an Apple and we wake up to find the next version running on Linux. Then we will see how many freebsd true believers are out there - and is one reason to support the project directly. I could see myself being one of those people, but I also can tell which way the wind is blowing.
Please support your open source projects with time or money! I practice what I preach, I make monthly contributions to three open source projects and occasional one-time contributions. However, I should do more.
I am not conflating Netgate and BSD and pfsense and OPNsense are not going to ever move to Linux. The challenge in writing firewalls is not just a front end to manage it, but the entire back end as well and both pfsense and OPNsense are deeply dependent specifically on FreeBSD. Also, Netgate’s other product TNSR is Linux based and solves some of the limitations that are in the FreeBSD system for certain higher end scenarios.
Back to the topic of contributions, sure monetary donations to open source projects are a good thing, but having dev’s contribute directly to the code so solve challenges based on use cases they are finding in production environments is far more valuable to moving the project forward.
I’ll concede to your knowledge about the linux migration. If that is off the table, I expect costs to increase with time. Netgate is swimming against the tide. If they can’t or don’t want to get out, that is a cost they will pass on to their customers.
Developers giving back is great and 100% necessary! Developer’s self interest contribute to the whole, which comes back to them from others doing the same. Symbiotic relationship. This drives down cost with scale, which Linux has in spades. To the end user this means my contribution to kernel support in 2023 should be next to nothing. When I buy a tv I don’t think about supporting the linux kernel.
Until something changes, Linux is sucking all the oxygen out of the room for kernel development. If netgate chooses to forgo those cost savings, then it serves their best interest. They are still competitively priced and have a lot of room to raise prices in the future and remain competitive.
I just converted a few months ago. My wife works from home so I always make changes when she goes on a trip. I do not like scrambling if things go south. Although, if I decide to go back to CE, I am not worried about it. I will hang tight for a bit and see how things play out.
Hello, how much time do I have to move to the CE release?
Will the actual 2023.05.1 continue to work?
Since I am gonna be out for work for at least a month, I am worried because my family will kill me - literally - if they will have to stay for a month without internet
Thanks for the feedback. We appreciate it. As you have probably read our blog post on the matter, you will have seen that we had a problem that needed immediate attention. We made some decisions to protect the business in haste that we knew would result in some less-than-favorable feedback. We are hearing that feedback and much of it has been constructive.
We are currently discussing the matter internally and are considering some changes that we believe will help to regain everyone’s trust. We’re working on the details now and hope to have an announcement in the coming days. We believe people will be happy with the outcome.
Now we just ask for a little patience so we can put the pieces together and make an announcement.
- if they will have to stay for a month without internet 
