Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/11/25/you-can-still-get-these-5-deal.html
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I subscribed to a year of PIA, and on their site they say they support Linux. So, everything was fine until I upgraded from Xubuntu 17.04 to 17.10. Afterwards, the panel menu was garbled. I managed, because I knew which panel menu items did what. I sent in a help request, which took a month to get a response. The response was to upgrade 2 files, though I indicated that I had already done so. I then uninstalled PIA , downloaded a fresh installer, erased every hint of PIA on my computer and re-installed. This time, not only was my panel menu garbled, but all but 3 entries were gone and of the 3 remaining, 1 was grayed out. Clicking on the other two resulted in opening their support page and closing the app.
So, I sent in another request for help. This time, they responded in a couple of weeks and the response was word-for-word exactly what they had responded with before. I AGAIN reminded them I had the latest versions of those files and was getting a little more than annoyed.
Next response came in about a week in which they explained they did not yet fully support Linux. WHAT? At this point, I again uninstalled, thoroughly erased PIA’s existence from my computer, and installed NordVPN, which has been happily purring along for a couple of weeks now.
TLDR: Private Internet Access sucks if you use Linux.
Re: the Universal Waterproof Solar Charger:
If you really want “to escape civilization for the weekend”, why bother to bring a phone, let alone keep it charged?
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After I post this, will look into the archives on BB postings on VPN privacy rankings. The rankings were posted near the end of the year, when I guess deals were to be offered/found. I don’t remember PIA being ranked highly. I wish BB would still rank the available VPNs. On the other hand, I wonder if all the VPNs have become the same in terms of privacy, i.e. not much protection for the user.
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I’m not sure BB is or would be authoritative when it comes to VPNs. You’re better off looking at security forums like Wilders, or reviews like this one.
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At the time of my purchase, I had done a little research and while it certainly wasn’t rated the best, PIA was rated better than most and the deal offered was extremely affordable. Throw in their claim to support Linux and I figured I’d give them a shot. NordVPN, according to my research, is one of the better vpns with respect to privacy, though the price was about 3 times what I paid for PIA. Fortunately, Nord offered a pretty sizable percentage off in their year-end sale, so I bought a year.
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