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Sigh...

And even worse:

Everything in Tailscale is Open Source, except the GUI clients for proprietary OS (Windows and macOS/iOS), and the control server.

I just replaced my entire setup with base wireguard as a challenge, easier than I expected it to be, and not hard to mimic tailscale.

I'm not that worried as there are alternatives like Netbird. The underlying tech really isn't hard to replicate since Wireguard is pretty standard.

I think it would be cool if Tailscale made it into the enterprise arena.

I'm unsure if it has been mentioned, but a similar tool which is open source (you can run the backend unlike tailscale), netbird

https://netbird.io/

a long runway that allows us to become profitable when needed

Switch to self-hosting headscale when they enshittify in an attempt to become profitable, duh

Friendly reminder that Tailscale is VC-funded and driving towards IPO

You know what's to come.

The answer to the question is immediately. Or switch to OpenZiti or Pangolin even.

Tailscale never sat right with me. The convenience was nice, but - like other VC-funded projects - it followed that ever-familiar pattern of an "easy" service popping up out of nowhere and gaining massive popularity seemingly overnight. 🚩🚩🚩

I can't say I'm surprised by any of this.

I think a lot of companies view their free plan as recruiting/advertising

if you use TailScale personally and have a great experience then you'll bring in business by advocating for it at work.

Of course it could go either way, and I don't rely on TailScale (it's my "backup" VPN to my home network)... we'll see, I guess.

Am I totally off-base in thinking that MagicDNS and pluggable DNS nameserver overrides are a huge feature of tailscale?

I love that I can refer to my tailnet devices just via their machine name. I use it everywhere. And also that I can just slot in my NextDNS ID so that any device running tailscale now automatically uses that, and I don’t have to mess with my shared router settings or per device settings. Is all that actually really easy to set up outside of tailscale? Cuz if it is and I just somehow missed that when doing all my research, I’ll happily give plain wireguard or other mesh orchestrators like NetBird a go.

And I already know that mDNS is not the answer. That protocol is simply not reliable enough.

Tailscale is great. The principle concern to me is that your super easy mesh network depends on Tailscale so if they want it they have control, and if they change their pricing or options you depend on them, and though they can't see the data you send they can see the topology of your network and where all your computers/devices are.

I use Nebula, which is more work to set up and doesn't have some of the features, not But if you slap the 'lighthouse' (administrating node) on a cheap VPS it works great. And it has some advantages. But Nebula also troubles me: though it's fully open source and fully in your control, the documentation isn't great. Instead, you can now get "managed nebula", which puts you in the same problem as Tailscale: the company sees and controls your network topology. I fear the company (Defined Networking) is trying to push things that way. Even their android app you can't fully configure unless you use their 'managed' service.

For now, Nebula is great, and my preferred mesh network (I looked into all the main ones). And for Tailscale you can run the administration server yourself with Headscale and be fully in your control.

Actually I wish Tailscale the best as a profitable business. They've created a fantastic service and system. But for me, I'd rather my network be in my own hands and for my own eyes. And, as is OP's main point, once they have enough dependent users, the service might turn much worse.

Are there better alternatives? I was planning on using tailscale until now. :P

Yeah and steam is closed source DRM platform. Great software sometimes is worth the trade off.