Re: Freeswan in Debian, or: Why I am NOT such a bad maintainer

["Daniel Pocock" <daniel@pocock.com.au>]

I've worked with all types of VPN on Linux, since pre-freeswan.  There are
quite a few options out there now, including openswan, freeswan (no longer
supported), isakmpd and racoon (and there are other options for people who
don't do IPsec).

As some have already discovered, they all have a few problems and
limitations.  For a new user, I don't believe setting up a VPN on Debian
is as easy as it could be, no matter which package the user chooses.

Just deciding which of these platforms to adopt can be quite a difficult
decision.  Giving users more choices can have disadvantages.

I entirely agree that Rene's efforts maintaining Freeswan may not be a
good investment of the limited time he has available, especially given the
fact that there won't be much upstream support.  Even though I'm probably
going to have to upgrade quite a few production systems to Openswan, I am
happy to do that knowing that focussing on Openswan will bring long term
benefits to Debian and to Linux.

Thanks for all the efforts so far Rene.