Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by CharlesW 362 days ago
Tailscale's client is already open source.

https://tailscale.com/opensource: "The core client code for the Tailscale daemon used across all platforms is open source, and the full client code is open source for platforms that are also open source."
1 comments
aspenmayer 361 days ago
So if you are running a closed source OS, Tailscale doesn’t have an open source client? Wouldn’t closed source OS users of Tailscale benefit the most from having an open source Tailscale client available?
link
CharlesW 361 days ago
> So if you are running a closed source OS, Tailscale doesn’t have an open source client?

As the content at the link makes crystal clear, the client is open source. Additionally, Tailscale's GUI for that client is open source on open source platforms.

99.999% of users of closed source OSs aren't going to care that the GUI isn't open source. The remaining 0.001% just use the open source client without the GUI.

link
aspenmayer 361 days ago
> 99.999% of users of closed source OSs aren't going to care that the GUI isn't open source.

They may or may not care, but just so we’re all on the same page, there isn’t an open source version of the end user application software for closed source operating systems that I can find on that page or any other Tailscale page. If one exists, I am happy to be corrected by you, and I am giving you the opportunity to do so now.

link
CharlesW 361 days ago
In the spirit of inclusiveness to non-technical folks who are flummoxed by CLIs but also have a religious objection to running closed software on their closed source OS, I'd recommend that they ask a more technically-inclined friend to set up the open source Tailscale client software with Cattail if they're on Windows, or an Automation that drives the CLI if they're on macOS.
link
aspenmayer 361 days ago
> This is HN, ain't nobody here afraid of a CLI.

Gatekeeping much?

> If (1) you personally need a GUI and (2) have a religious objection to running closed software on your closed source OS, ask a more technical friend to set up Cattail if you're on Windows, or an Automation that drives the CLI if you're on macOS.

I’m just asking if Tailscale has an open source application. Users who know what a GUI is and why it’s also important that it is open source will care that the GUI isn’t open source. The ones who don’t, won’t. Who benefits from obscurantist-posting like you are doing? Probably not the folks who don’t know that Tailscale doesn’t have an open source app, because the GUI is part and parcel to what the app even is conceptually to the sorts of users who don’t know what GUIs are.

link