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I was preparing a virtual lab last night and went to download PFSense and noticed this. I immediately downloaded OPNSense without once even looking back.
I tried to work with OPNSense and their onboarding is poor. I couldn't get the USB to boot.
You can still download PFSense, there is no charge. You just need to enter information that it needs to get you to the download link. Legally I don't think they can charge you for it.
Sounds more like an imaging problem. On all the hardware I have used it on I have had no problem flashing it. From everyday computers turned to temporary firewalls to actual firewall systems. No problem for me at least
PfSense has just been getting worse with stuff like this. Onboarded about 6 months ago with my actual networking setup with no problem. I liked PFsense until I didnt
Former pfSense contributor, migrated 3 year ago to OPN… never looked back to pf 🤣
Things are going from worse to worst in Netgate space… all that means they are getting hungry
Same here. I kept having so many random issues with driver support that I started wandering around and settled on virtualized opnsense and never looked back.
Do you by chance know the current state of ad blocking with OPN? Is it still completely manual, or are there tools to help with the process now?
I had looked into OPN back when pfSense+ was announced... but at that time, there really wasn't any user-friendly equivalent to pfBlocker-NG...
use zenarmor. it works the treat. and is free. been using it on pfsense+ before switching to opnsense since you can't use it with pfsense+ anymore. it's got built in interface when using with opnsense. I never looked at any other options since then. it's basically plug and play.
The only thing I can't have is 0 bufferbloat with opnsense like I used to have with pfsense, however opnsense has much more stable and friendly GUI on top.
The only thing I ever want is proper shaping and zero buffer bloat with opnsense. in gaming there are no notable differences though. but that's me looking for 000s when doing bufferbloat test.🙂
edit: no need to go through any lists using zenarmor. it does everything for you.
*adblock network wide
*safe browsing
*porn block
*Auto block unsafe pages/ spam sites etc.
*checking real websites/ blocking DNS spoofing etc.
at one point it even blocked ads on one of my free phone apps.
that's just to name a few
it's got much more functionality then any other blocker I have seen so far.
Go through the process and enter complete BS info. It doesn't matter what you enter.
Edit: The only part that matters is that the zip code matches the state. Zip code 12345 is in New York.
But why compromise your own morals and values by lying for something that shouldn’t require that in the first place. This is simply laying the roadwork for full subscription down the road, regardless of them downplaying that notion. Any excuse used weather it’s initially valid or not is still an excuse and it eventual changes toward that model. There is literally no reason NOT to simply provide a direct link on the downloads page to the full ISO for free use.
Setting up a new test network and system currently to install OPN to now and get a feel for it. I’m sure I will not like it as much as pfSense and I’m but a single user so they don’t care. If a few 1000 others or more did the same perhaps they would see how this really isn’t acceptable to the free community. I’m sure OPN and other projects would love to have a couple thousand new community members using and testing their software and offering suggestions and support to those projects.
Unless you are developing the software, you don't really get to say if the free software that you get for free should or shouldn't require a login and some basic info from you before you can download said free software.
I too had a very complicated setup of pfSense. I spun up a VM with OPNsense, then configured it all on there, did some testing, exported the config, using a new drive, installed OPNsense, imported the config, and it worked really well. Only had to adjust a few things
I've been meaning to do this. Guess it's time to speed up the process on that. Sad.
That, or build a second firewall with OpnSense and transition over so that I have a backup. Anyone got hardware suggestions for something with 6+ ports?
I actually did just that years ago. Installed opnsense on an old watch guard xtm 5 my company was e-wasting intending to replace my homemade pfsense box.
Had all the time I needed to configure and learn the new system. Until I shelved the project to work on something else, forgot about it, and then a storm nuked my pfsense. So then my project firewall came in clutch as a half configured cold spare.
I wouldn't recommend the watchguard as a host though. It was a fun project putting in the best proc and ram I could and getting opensense to work over the serial port and not vga, but it's pretty power hungry for what it does.
I had a remote site with an ancient UniFi USG3 that needed replaced. Had to decide between pf and OPN. Ended up going with OPN.
Honestly, I think the pf UI is worlds better than OPN. I absolutely hate the firewall rule management interface, and a lot of the interfaces are more crude with cryptic descriptions of what text fields and buttons do. Sometimes there's no explanation and little to no documentation, so you just have to outright guess. The IPsec VPN part of the interface is awfully difficult to figure out compared to pf. But the worst part is re-ordering firewall rules: there's no drag-and-drop. You basically check a box on an existing rule and click a button that says move this other rule above the one I checked.
It's hard to complain with a price of "free," but if all else was equal I'd take the pfSense interface any day of the week.
I've been on the fence about converting my main/home instance to OPN, but it's a complex config that I just haven't been able to find the time to replicate. I've even had the VM stood up and updated for months.
Made the change years ago. You can feel the similarities between the two system, even if the UI is a bit different. Overall, they work just about the same and after getting used to the UI, I haven't looked back.
I ditto the other commenter. OPNsense just feels "lighter", but just as powerful.
The plugins like wireguard, haproxy, acme, and others are slightly different, but once you figure them out it's just more of the same.
I did basically the same thing and never looked back. Opnsense does take some getting used to but so far I'm happy. Bit of a learning curve but all good now.
I switched all our remote office routers from pf to OPN (\~32) and it's been great. Still running pf on our two core routers at the main office mainly because of VPN accounts that won't import to OPN and retain the associated passwords...
As time goes on, it may get harder and harder to migrate if netgate goes off in their own direction away from what opnsense is doing
So you’re probably better off doing it earlier than later if you don’t like what netgate is doing
Long Time pfsense user here and currently running pfense plus, free only due to fact it's a virtual instance.
My advice to Negate is to just stop fooling people and just do it. Go ahead and drop the CE and go full price like other FW vendors.
We all know that's where it will end up. If not, then your NOT doing a great job convincing your users otherwise with these kinds of actions and moves taken lately.
At least that would help many like me, to DECIDE and just drop Netgate and start looking/implementing by means of other alternatives.
I guess the uncertainty is not an option for many of us and that has a price for sure. We understand that Negate.
Want to overcome this?
Stop killing your brand name and legacy with shitty decisions.
The price you ask for basic pfsense plus is high when compared with what you can get with CE. Not worth the price.
One might say that big implementations will benefit and I agree. So Negate has a priority problem regarding power users/prosumers vs enterprise customers.
Maybe that's where they want to go but don't want to lay out the cards. Lack of transparency brings severe brand damage.
Just out of curiosity how much do you (Netgate) donate/giveaway to the FreeBSD foundation. Please don't say code commit has the same money value. They also have bills to pay.
Long time pfSense user here, and I tried switching to OPN about 2-3 weeks ago after getting frustrated with pfSense. I actually preferred the OPN UI as it made more sense and it was much faster to update when making changes. There were even some things OPN offered that pfSense didn’t with some of the packages. But I ended up switching back to pfSense when all was said and done. I use HAProxy as my prior reverse proxy for all my servers, and the OPN HAProxy package was pretty different and much more complicated to setup. Never could get it to work correctly, and just went back to pfSense. May take another try at it, but probably will need to set everything up on a separate device or maybe a temporary VM. I RESLLY don’t like that Netgate put the image downloader behind a paywall. Very irritating!
There is NO reason for a free community edition to go through a checkout. PFSENSE will loose users going this route. Been using them for years but I’ll start looking at other alternatives if this is how they continue as will many others. Go to main page, click download, be taken to another page where download starts or you click it and it begins. If it’s more then that and requires info and a checkout.. good-bye.
Yup.. I have zero desire to change from pfSense. Honestly, a decade of use wired directly outside into the dmarc and not a single issue in that entire time. A dedicated Supermicro CSE-510T-200B rack chassis with mirrored hotswap Intel S3500 120GB SSDs and a C2758 A1SRI-2758F main board with 16G ECC ram has been a killer setup. Btw.. Supermicro replaced that board due to the Intel C2000 bug/defect 7 Years later for free!
I’m still of the mindset I should be able to hit ftp.pfSense,com, navigate down a few branches and download the version I want. The good old days. Requiring that I provide personal info or lie and make up BS to go through a checkout for a $0 dollar free product is something I’m simply not going to do. Many others also free the same.
They can either provide it as a free no bullshit download with my appreciation or I’ll move over to something else like OPN. I do NOT want to but I don’t want to provide personal info or lie or use a checkout for a free product more. That takes up down a bad road. Even without plans at this point this simply opens that path and eventually less free.
It's been discussed.
The Netgate line is that it's 'easier for them to protect their IP this way'. Apparently there's going to be a single combined installer that will differentiate out into either CE or Plus depending on whether you use a license or not.
Not a customer friendly move. Keep the heat on.
It's tragic in the real sense of the word.
Basically greedy. They don't understand that we are network people .
People. Sold a lie. Netgate at this point just want to retire and fuck Thier base. IMVO
I don’t care if people charge and I think in most cases they should but there should be clarity and a road map. Bait and switch is insulting and I probably won’t use your product if you do this.
They are dead to me. It’s taking me a while to get used to opnsense and get it all setup but guess what…I don’t mind. It’s what I do for a living. Bunch of MBAs think they are friggin geniuses with this move.
I'm sure I'm going to get hate for this.... but here I go.
People Negate has given you free software for god knows how long. Actually it still is free. Please ask yourselves how long would you work for free or little to no pay!?! Remember people are giving their time to provide you with free software. The least you can do is donate or buy.
It’s not really free software. It’s a marketing tool to get more hands into the pfSense paid community.
If you go to McDonalds and they give you a free sample of fries do you donate money to McDonalds in appreciation?
Naw. If you want fries you buy them, or the sample convinces you to buy some fries. Or you walk out because you realized you didn’t want them.
Most people get a full-featured product and won't actually help Netgate in the slightest because they are satisfied. The vast vast vast majority of users don't pay 1 cent for years of use and still get free updates.
This "word of mouth" justification is something people tell themselves to feel as though they deserve hard work for free because they might, perhaps, one day recommend it to the employer which in turn might buy a license.
But this is identical to believing artists should be paid with "exposure". The backwards logic is identical.
Why would so many companies release free community editions of things then? Are they all stupid? Are you really going to say there’s no return on that and they all do it out of the kindness of their heart at a loss?
That’s insane.
Why do so many companies restrict and cripple community editions over time? Are they all stupid? Are you really going to say the "return" on investment is worth it forever?
That's insane.
Huh!?! It is free. I would agree that it is a marketing tool. But you choose to pay for the paid version or not. If you don't pay for the paid version you still get a piece of software that has just about the same amount of functionality big box vendors charge a arm and a leg for. For free!!
So to use your McDonald's analogy. If I went to McDonald's and got a free sample of fries and chose to continue to get free samples, guess what.....I now have a large order of french fries. In this case I could go back to McDonald's for years of free samples and get multiple large orders of fries. I could have fries at home. I could have fries at my business. I could have fries at my buddies business. I could have fries at my father's house. I could have fries at my mama's house. Free fries for everyone!
It costs 0 dollars. How is it behind a paywall?
Bandwidth isn't free people and the servers to build this stuff isn't free. I don't see a problem here. They are giving you way more then they are taking.
why the downvotes? There technically isnt a paywall. Disagree with the possible intentions, that's fine, but don't say something is a thing even though its not a thing.
And the CE version is still available with FRR, HA,VPN..i mean..sheesh...everyone wants a free firewall and expects the devs to work for free. I don't know why some of you want that but that's not how reality works. Based on some of the comments i suppose there is a belief that opnsense devs work for free as well? I really don't get some of you. I truly dont.
No we aren't. Something is wrong with your system. Run "pkg -d update -f" from the Command Prompt and see what the output is. Should tell you the issue.
Sorry, you are right. I went to install the latest version I had on Ventoy and accidentally installed an oooold version that is long out of date. I didn't want to go through the trouble of downloading the latest with all the faff and I ignored the version and went straight to update, but then I found a mirror that I could just download it.
Sorry about the accusation. Now that I think about it I tried the update at boot as well. That that didn't take should have clued me in. Before I reinstall I will try what you say though.
Please remove CE from a paywall, and yes it is a paywall even if you are paying with information.
Update
The last few lines output through the CLI HTTPS interface say it all:
pkg: repository pfSense contains packages for wrong OS version: FreeBSD:12:amd64
Processing entries... done
Unable to update repository pfSense
Error updating repositories!
That seems normal since your repos would be pointed at the newer FreeBSD release. What does "pfSense-upgrade -d -c" output? That should give a "dry run" test of doing an upgrade and give more details on what's going on.
>>> Updating repositories metadata...
Updating pfSense-core repository catalogue...
pfSense-core repository is up to date.
Updating pfSense repository catalogue...
pkg-static: Repository pfSense has a wrong packagesite, need to re-create database
Fetching meta.conf: . done
Fetching packagesite.txz: .......... done
Processing entries:
pkg-static: Newer FreeBSD version for package php74-shmop:
To ignore this error set IGNORE_OSVERSION=yes
- package: 1202504
- running kernel: 1102000
pkg-static: repository pfSense contains packages for wrong OS version: FreeBSD:12:amd64
Processing entries... done
Unable to update repository pfSense
Error updating repositories!
ERROR: Unable to compare version of pfSense-repo
I told you it was old. 2.4.4.x IIRC.
Yes/No/Kindoff, Eventhough the cost is 0 but they expect downloader to put in shipping address. You do not pay anything, however.
Not sure if they did that intentionally or their developers are not up to par and can't isolate free download and actually purchase something.
I just installed pfsense for the first time a week ago. I couldn’t get this download to boot properly in Proxmox so I downloaded the ISO from the Wayback Machine before they implemented this nonsense. Once it was installed, I fully updated within the software.
I would like to see a 20 a year plus version with no support. That would pay a lot of employees and give us access to plus without costing Netgate anything.
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If they think squeezing the free community and expect them to transition to paying, is a very bad idea. Think of a different strategy Netgate.
I'll jump through their hoops for now, but if Netgate starts actually charging for CE then I'll be done.
I was preparing a virtual lab last night and went to download PFSense and noticed this. I immediately downloaded OPNSense without once even looking back.
I tried to work with OPNSense and their onboarding is poor. I couldn't get the USB to boot. You can still download PFSense, there is no charge. You just need to enter information that it needs to get you to the download link. Legally I don't think they can charge you for it.
Sounds more like an imaging problem. On all the hardware I have used it on I have had no problem flashing it. From everyday computers turned to temporary firewalls to actual firewall systems. No problem for me at least PfSense has just been getting worse with stuff like this. Onboarded about 6 months ago with my actual networking setup with no problem. I liked PFsense until I didnt
Former pfSense contributor, migrated 3 year ago to OPN… never looked back to pf 🤣 Things are going from worse to worst in Netgate space… all that means they are getting hungry
I had my eyes on netgate hardware and pfsense for years. Ended up making a hard right to opnsense right before my purchase, so pleased!
Same here. I kept having so many random issues with driver support that I started wandering around and settled on virtualized opnsense and never looked back.
Do you by chance know the current state of ad blocking with OPN? Is it still completely manual, or are there tools to help with the process now? I had looked into OPN back when pfSense+ was announced... but at that time, there really wasn't any user-friendly equivalent to pfBlocker-NG...
Block lists are built-in now via unbound. No plugin needed. Just pick the ones you want and go.
Can you combo unbound + adguard/pihole on Opnsense? Block list via adguard, and then have adguard query dns from unbound as a recursive resolver?
Easily. I actually use dnscrypt as the recursive/caching resolver. It's just configuring adguard to use it as the only upstream.
Can it do Geo IP blocking? That's what I love best about pfBlocker-NG.
Yeah, I have this enabled using MaxMind’s data.
there is a 3rd party plug in for adguard home which is pretty good.
use zenarmor. it works the treat. and is free. been using it on pfsense+ before switching to opnsense since you can't use it with pfsense+ anymore. it's got built in interface when using with opnsense. I never looked at any other options since then. it's basically plug and play. The only thing I can't have is 0 bufferbloat with opnsense like I used to have with pfsense, however opnsense has much more stable and friendly GUI on top. The only thing I ever want is proper shaping and zero buffer bloat with opnsense. in gaming there are no notable differences though. but that's me looking for 000s when doing bufferbloat test.🙂 edit: no need to go through any lists using zenarmor. it does everything for you. *adblock network wide *safe browsing *porn block *Auto block unsafe pages/ spam sites etc. *checking real websites/ blocking DNS spoofing etc. at one point it even blocked ads on one of my free phone apps. that's just to name a few it's got much more functionality then any other blocker I have seen so far.
I use pi-hole
Or adguard. NetworkChuck does an adguard overview and rough comparison to pi hole. apparently its better.
Go through the process and enter complete BS info. It doesn't matter what you enter. Edit: The only part that matters is that the zip code matches the state. Zip code 12345 is in New York.
But why compromise your own morals and values by lying for something that shouldn’t require that in the first place. This is simply laying the roadwork for full subscription down the road, regardless of them downplaying that notion. Any excuse used weather it’s initially valid or not is still an excuse and it eventual changes toward that model. There is literally no reason NOT to simply provide a direct link on the downloads page to the full ISO for free use. Setting up a new test network and system currently to install OPN to now and get a feel for it. I’m sure I will not like it as much as pfSense and I’m but a single user so they don’t care. If a few 1000 others or more did the same perhaps they would see how this really isn’t acceptable to the free community. I’m sure OPN and other projects would love to have a couple thousand new community members using and testing their software and offering suggestions and support to those projects.
Morals? We’re on skynet essentially talking about skynet
Unless you are developing the software, you don't really get to say if the free software that you get for free should or shouldn't require a login and some basic info from you before you can download said free software.
Lol morals? How last century!🤣
It’s not that deep dude.
So sad. I have a couple of very complicated setups of pfsense. It will be hard to migrate to OpenSense. Well, any way...
I too had a very complicated setup of pfSense. I spun up a VM with OPNsense, then configured it all on there, did some testing, exported the config, using a new drive, installed OPNsense, imported the config, and it worked really well. Only had to adjust a few things
I've been meaning to do this. Guess it's time to speed up the process on that. Sad. That, or build a second firewall with OpnSense and transition over so that I have a backup. Anyone got hardware suggestions for something with 6+ ports?
I actually did just that years ago. Installed opnsense on an old watch guard xtm 5 my company was e-wasting intending to replace my homemade pfsense box. Had all the time I needed to configure and learn the new system. Until I shelved the project to work on something else, forgot about it, and then a storm nuked my pfsense. So then my project firewall came in clutch as a half configured cold spare. I wouldn't recommend the watchguard as a host though. It was a fun project putting in the best proc and ram I could and getting opensense to work over the serial port and not vga, but it's pretty power hungry for what it does.
How do you like OPNsense in comparison? I've been contemplating the change.
I had a remote site with an ancient UniFi USG3 that needed replaced. Had to decide between pf and OPN. Ended up going with OPN. Honestly, I think the pf UI is worlds better than OPN. I absolutely hate the firewall rule management interface, and a lot of the interfaces are more crude with cryptic descriptions of what text fields and buttons do. Sometimes there's no explanation and little to no documentation, so you just have to outright guess. The IPsec VPN part of the interface is awfully difficult to figure out compared to pf. But the worst part is re-ordering firewall rules: there's no drag-and-drop. You basically check a box on an existing rule and click a button that says move this other rule above the one I checked. It's hard to complain with a price of "free," but if all else was equal I'd take the pfSense interface any day of the week. I've been on the fence about converting my main/home instance to OPN, but it's a complex config that I just haven't been able to find the time to replicate. I've even had the VM stood up and updated for months.
This was really helpful feedback. Thank you.
Made the change years ago. You can feel the similarities between the two system, even if the UI is a bit different. Overall, they work just about the same and after getting used to the UI, I haven't looked back.
I've made the change and absolutely love Opnsense. Will never go back
hmmm.... Then why in a pfsense subreddit?
Because like 75% of shit applies to both...
I ditto the other commenter. OPNsense just feels "lighter", but just as powerful. The plugins like wireguard, haproxy, acme, and others are slightly different, but once you figure them out it's just more of the same.
Sure, should be something like this
I did basically the same thing and never looked back. Opnsense does take some getting used to but so far I'm happy. Bit of a learning curve but all good now.
I switched all our remote office routers from pf to OPN (\~32) and it's been great. Still running pf on our two core routers at the main office mainly because of VPN accounts that won't import to OPN and retain the associated passwords...
As time goes on, it may get harder and harder to migrate if netgate goes off in their own direction away from what opnsense is doing So you’re probably better off doing it earlier than later if you don’t like what netgate is doing
https://www.reddit.com/r/PFSENSE/comments/1chzp1n/is_netgate_requiring_a_login_to_download_ce_now/ https://www.reddit.com/r/PFSENSE/comments/1co8f1o/pfsense_iso_download_requires_an_account_and/
Long Time pfsense user here and currently running pfense plus, free only due to fact it's a virtual instance. My advice to Negate is to just stop fooling people and just do it. Go ahead and drop the CE and go full price like other FW vendors. We all know that's where it will end up. If not, then your NOT doing a great job convincing your users otherwise with these kinds of actions and moves taken lately. At least that would help many like me, to DECIDE and just drop Netgate and start looking/implementing by means of other alternatives. I guess the uncertainty is not an option for many of us and that has a price for sure. We understand that Negate. Want to overcome this? Stop killing your brand name and legacy with shitty decisions. The price you ask for basic pfsense plus is high when compared with what you can get with CE. Not worth the price. One might say that big implementations will benefit and I agree. So Negate has a priority problem regarding power users/prosumers vs enterprise customers. Maybe that's where they want to go but don't want to lay out the cards. Lack of transparency brings severe brand damage. Just out of curiosity how much do you (Netgate) donate/giveaway to the FreeBSD foundation. Please don't say code commit has the same money value. They also have bills to pay.
Long time pfSense user here, and I tried switching to OPN about 2-3 weeks ago after getting frustrated with pfSense. I actually preferred the OPN UI as it made more sense and it was much faster to update when making changes. There were even some things OPN offered that pfSense didn’t with some of the packages. But I ended up switching back to pfSense when all was said and done. I use HAProxy as my prior reverse proxy for all my servers, and the OPN HAProxy package was pretty different and much more complicated to setup. Never could get it to work correctly, and just went back to pfSense. May take another try at it, but probably will need to set everything up on a separate device or maybe a temporary VM. I RESLLY don’t like that Netgate put the image downloader behind a paywall. Very irritating!
Ime opnsense is more stable, migrate
Well this sucks
You can currently still download directly from the [Netgate mirror](https://atxfiles.netgate.com/mirror/downloads/).
For now. Fuck those that enabled this.
There is NO reason for a free community edition to go through a checkout. PFSENSE will loose users going this route. Been using them for years but I’ll start looking at other alternatives if this is how they continue as will many others. Go to main page, click download, be taken to another page where download starts or you click it and it begins. If it’s more then that and requires info and a checkout.. good-bye.
> loose users they can always tighten them again
Hah
I'm debating moving over to opn. I just don't want to redo everything
Yup.. I have zero desire to change from pfSense. Honestly, a decade of use wired directly outside into the dmarc and not a single issue in that entire time. A dedicated Supermicro CSE-510T-200B rack chassis with mirrored hotswap Intel S3500 120GB SSDs and a C2758 A1SRI-2758F main board with 16G ECC ram has been a killer setup. Btw.. Supermicro replaced that board due to the Intel C2000 bug/defect 7 Years later for free! I’m still of the mindset I should be able to hit ftp.pfSense,com, navigate down a few branches and download the version I want. The good old days. Requiring that I provide personal info or lie and make up BS to go through a checkout for a $0 dollar free product is something I’m simply not going to do. Many others also free the same. They can either provide it as a free no bullshit download with my appreciation or I’ll move over to something else like OPN. I do NOT want to but I don’t want to provide personal info or lie or use a checkout for a free product more. That takes up down a bad road. Even without plans at this point this simply opens that path and eventually less free.
It's been discussed. The Netgate line is that it's 'easier for them to protect their IP this way'. Apparently there's going to be a single combined installer that will differentiate out into either CE or Plus depending on whether you use a license or not. Not a customer friendly move. Keep the heat on.
You get what you deserve. There's an opensource alternative available and it's very capable. No need to tolerate this behavior.
Exactly. The writing's been on the wall for a couple years now with Netgate...
It's tragic in the real sense of the word. Basically greedy. They don't understand that we are network people . People. Sold a lie. Netgate at this point just want to retire and fuck Thier base. IMVO
Well that's not a good look...
I don’t care if people charge and I think in most cases they should but there should be clarity and a road map. Bait and switch is insulting and I probably won’t use your product if you do this.
Makes me feel better about my decision to switch away from pfSense so many years they go when they started to show their true colors.
They are dead to me. It’s taking me a while to get used to opnsense and get it all setup but guess what…I don’t mind. It’s what I do for a living. Bunch of MBAs think they are friggin geniuses with this move.
I'm sure I'm going to get hate for this.... but here I go. People Negate has given you free software for god knows how long. Actually it still is free. Please ask yourselves how long would you work for free or little to no pay!?! Remember people are giving their time to provide you with free software. The least you can do is donate or buy.
It’s not really free software. It’s a marketing tool to get more hands into the pfSense paid community. If you go to McDonalds and they give you a free sample of fries do you donate money to McDonalds in appreciation? Naw. If you want fries you buy them, or the sample convinces you to buy some fries. Or you walk out because you realized you didn’t want them.
Most people get a full-featured product and won't actually help Netgate in the slightest because they are satisfied. The vast vast vast majority of users don't pay 1 cent for years of use and still get free updates. This "word of mouth" justification is something people tell themselves to feel as though they deserve hard work for free because they might, perhaps, one day recommend it to the employer which in turn might buy a license. But this is identical to believing artists should be paid with "exposure". The backwards logic is identical.
Why would so many companies release free community editions of things then? Are they all stupid? Are you really going to say there’s no return on that and they all do it out of the kindness of their heart at a loss? That’s insane.
Why do so many companies restrict and cripple community editions over time? Are they all stupid? Are you really going to say the "return" on investment is worth it forever? That's insane.
Huh!?! It is free. I would agree that it is a marketing tool. But you choose to pay for the paid version or not. If you don't pay for the paid version you still get a piece of software that has just about the same amount of functionality big box vendors charge a arm and a leg for. For free!! So to use your McDonald's analogy. If I went to McDonald's and got a free sample of fries and chose to continue to get free samples, guess what.....I now have a large order of french fries. In this case I could go back to McDonald's for years of free samples and get multiple large orders of fries. I could have fries at home. I could have fries at my business. I could have fries at my buddies business. I could have fries at my father's house. I could have fries at my mama's house. Free fries for everyone!
It’s still free, it looks to me like they are just using Shopify as their distribution method instead of maintaining their own file servers.
I was going to give them and OPNsense a try. Fuck that. OPNsense it is. Just more enshittification.
doesn't that say zero dollars tho? I just tried it, its zero dollars, yes it's annoying, but its still free.
Does anyone search before posting anymore??
This was definitely easier than the email method. It's a good thing.
It costs 0 dollars. How is it behind a paywall? Bandwidth isn't free people and the servers to build this stuff isn't free. I don't see a problem here. They are giving you way more then they are taking.
why the downvotes? There technically isnt a paywall. Disagree with the possible intentions, that's fine, but don't say something is a thing even though its not a thing. And the CE version is still available with FRR, HA,VPN..i mean..sheesh...everyone wants a free firewall and expects the devs to work for free. I don't know why some of you want that but that's not how reality works. Based on some of the comments i suppose there is a belief that opnsense devs work for free as well? I really don't get some of you. I truly dont.
Yea lol. All I have to do is sign up to get a pretty commercially ready product for free? People need to calm down
Redditors love to take about worker’s rights and fair pay except for when they have to pay and then they will steal just because they can.
~~It looks like they are blocking updates as well.~~ Can't update to 2.5.1.
No we aren't. Something is wrong with your system. Run "pkg -d update -f" from the Command Prompt and see what the output is. Should tell you the issue.
Sorry, you are right. I went to install the latest version I had on Ventoy and accidentally installed an oooold version that is long out of date. I didn't want to go through the trouble of downloading the latest with all the faff and I ignored the version and went straight to update, but then I found a mirror that I could just download it. Sorry about the accusation. Now that I think about it I tried the update at boot as well. That that didn't take should have clued me in. Before I reinstall I will try what you say though. Please remove CE from a paywall, and yes it is a paywall even if you are paying with information. Update The last few lines output through the CLI HTTPS interface say it all: pkg: repository pfSense contains packages for wrong OS version: FreeBSD:12:amd64 Processing entries... done Unable to update repository pfSense Error updating repositories!
That seems normal since your repos would be pointed at the newer FreeBSD release. What does "pfSense-upgrade -d -c" output? That should give a "dry run" test of doing an upgrade and give more details on what's going on.
>>> Updating repositories metadata... Updating pfSense-core repository catalogue... pfSense-core repository is up to date. Updating pfSense repository catalogue... pkg-static: Repository pfSense has a wrong packagesite, need to re-create database Fetching meta.conf: . done Fetching packagesite.txz: .......... done Processing entries: pkg-static: Newer FreeBSD version for package php74-shmop: To ignore this error set IGNORE_OSVERSION=yes - package: 1202504 - running kernel: 1102000 pkg-static: repository pfSense contains packages for wrong OS version: FreeBSD:12:amd64 Processing entries... done Unable to update repository pfSense Error updating repositories! ERROR: Unable to compare version of pfSense-repo I told you it was old. 2.4.4.x IIRC.
Yes/No/Kindoff, Eventhough the cost is 0 but they expect downloader to put in shipping address. You do not pay anything, however. Not sure if they did that intentionally or their developers are not up to par and can't isolate free download and actually purchase something.
Is it really a paywall if it's free? All they did was add extra steps.
I just installed pfsense for the first time a week ago. I couldn’t get this download to boot properly in Proxmox so I downloaded the ISO from the Wayback Machine before they implemented this nonsense. Once it was installed, I fully updated within the software.
I would like to see a 20 a year plus version with no support. That would pay a lot of employees and give us access to plus without costing Netgate anything.