Enlarge / The WireGuard interface, with a Firefox window open to netdata. (credit: Jim Salter)

WireGuard is a new type of VPN which aims to be simpler to set up and maintain than current VPNs and to offer a higher degree of security. The software is free and open source—it’s licensed GPLv2, the same license as the Linux kernel—which is always a big plus in my book. It’s also designed to be easily portable between operating systems. All of that might lead you to ask: in a world that already has IPSEC, PPTP, L2TP, OpenVPN, and a bewildering array of proprietary SSL VPNs, do we need yet another type of VPN?

OK, but why?

I’ve seen a few new VPN designs pop up in the last few years—ZeroTier and Tinc come to mind—and each time, I’ve thought, “I should really look into that.” And then I haven’t. I use OpenVPN heavily; I’m thoroughly familiar with it, and it scratches most of my VPN-related itches pretty well.

So how did WireGuard rattle my cage hard enough to get me to actually play with it? It had something you almost never see: a positive comment about its code from none other than Linus Torvalds.