From the article:
Since Tailscale was founded in 2019, customers have been forced to choose between either Tailscale or Mullvad without the ability for them to co-exist.
Today we announce a partnership with Tailscale that allows you to use both in conjunction through the Tailscale app. This functionality is not available through the Mullvad VPN app. This partnership allows customers of Tailscale to make use of our WireGuard VPN servers as āexit nodesā. This means that whilst connected to Tailscale, you can access your devices across Tailscaleās mesh network, whilst still connecting outbound through Mullvad VPN WireGuard servers in any location.
Announcement also on Tailscale blog.
Iāve never even heard of these guys, but I see that they have a native client on fdroid so that tells me they care about degoogled operating systems which is very important. It means they go out of their way to prioritize privacy even for app stores that arenāt profitable.
Tailscale is a very cool way of seamlessly creating a private network spread out geographically. Devices sign into the Tailnet from anywhere. Itās very big in the selfhosted community (it has a generous free tier). For example my home servers are signed in, so Iām able to stream from my media server to my phone over my private Tailnet tunneled through the internet. I also have an offsite backup location with another server connected to the Tailnet for accepting automated backups.
The underlying technology is Wireguard. It is very smart about figuring out the most effective route - If Iām on my laptop in my home wifi, trafffic from my servers is direct, if Iām away somewhere, itās piped though the net securely. What Tailscale adds is ease of setup and native apps for each device.
The privacy angle is that Iām able to get rid of all the cloud services I used to rely on. For example I donāt want my CCTV system connected to a cloud provider, but with Tailnet I can connect to my cameras over the internet without having to expose the system to a data mining corporation.
If Wireguard wasnāt so easy, and if I was just a little less interested in playing with setting up my own VPN, I would have use Tailscale. Itās what Iāll recommend to family members when they eventually come asking for a VPN.
That said, setting up a VPN with multiple nodes is pretty trivial for anyone with basic networking knowledge. IME itās also extremely low maintenance; I have far more issues with the containerized apps Iām running occasionally barfing and needing tending than my little 7-node Wireguard VPN. I use Mullvad for the exit nodes and bandwidth (so as not to swamp my little VMs), but Tailscale doesnāt offer me much value.
Still, as I said, for non-technical people, Tailscale is pretty cool.
So basically itās a easier to set up VPN tunnel for your home network combined with a reverse proxy or did I misunderstand something. I still havenāt quite figured out the self-hosted aspect of it.
They provide useful tools for self-hosters (I x-posted this to !selfhosted@lemmy.world)
