It handles a lot more than that, right? It does all of the key distribution and rotation which is a pain.

If they can do it it’s not impossible (they’re just people after all).

With an open source implementation out there, anyone can do it merely pulling a Docker container, and without paying Tailscale.

Regardless I manage a dozen users with no issue using Embarks container; once they’re setup I touch nothing.

Paying people is not working with people; it’s working with a specific group. Open source is working with people.

If the open source implementation is equally good, I'm sure people will use that instead of Tailscale. That Tailscale exists makes me suspect that the open source implementation - as is usually the case with these "just use curlftpfs!" comments – is not equally good.

The reality is that making software, like any other human endeavour, takes time and energy. Paying one another money is a rather well-established mechanism of rewarding and incentivising that time and energy (since not everyone wants to work free of charge to make and maintain software for you, out of the goodness of their hearts, no matter how much you insist that you're owed their unpaid labour).

There are small and local means of getting free food, or free woodworking, etc, but the general reality is that a high-quality high-dependency maintained product, over the long term, is more feasible when it's paid.

It's the same argument as the famous Dropbox comment[0]. I'm generally going to prefer a polished service over a technical solution.

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

Haha, yup, that's what I was quoting in my comment ("just use curlftpfs!").

Apples and oranges

A fully functional web app in a Docker image is what wg-ui is.

Web companies could probably just provide API keys for customers at this point and abandon UX teams.

If agency to make a thing must be purchased the long term viability of the thing is suspect. The work becomes about payments not the thing.

If it’s a real human problem, humans will solve it. If it’s instigated due to someone with coins in their pocket to mesmerize lizard brains, it’s a synthetic solution that will vanish with the synthetic driver of the work; payments.

Just because paying for things is common throughout history does not mean it’s necessary or the best choice long term; see Netflix propping up payment flows churning out crap. It means meat based tape recorders simply LARP the past.

I haven't payed them a penny despite using their product for a while. And now that I've realized this, I've signed up for their personal pro plan.

"It's just FTP with curlftpfs and SVN"