Obscura VPN has launched a native Linux app, giving desktop users an easier way to access it (without wrangling Wireguard configuration files).
Linux isn’t short of VPN providers, but Obscura, founded by former Bitcoin Core contributor Carl Dong, has a different pitch to most.
Rather than your traffic being routed through a single provider, Obscura VPN uses a two-step relay1: it acts as the ‘entry node’ (seeing your original IP address) while another VPN provider, Mullvad, acts as the ‘exit node’ (the websites you visit).
Obscura’s Linux app also supports the QUIC-based stealth protocol, which disguises your VPN connection as regular HTTP/3 web browsing. This can help traffic slip past stricter network and service blocks that might other prohibit VPN traffic.
But it’s how Obscura can market itself as “the first VPN that can’t log your activity” – emphasis theirs – as neither company gets a complete picture of the person and their browsing habits.
Some commercial VPNs offer multihop, but everything still flows through the same company, who could, in theory, piece it all together if they had need/request to.
Privacy extends to registration; Obscura doesn’t need personal details as you log in with a randomly generated account number, like Mullvad. Payment is made via Monero (XMR) or Bitcoin over Lightning, though the less privacy conscious can pay by card via Stripe.
Its other features are standard VPN fare: server locations, tunnelling,
Alongside its new desktop Linux app, Obscura has relicensed the codebase to GPLv3 from the PolyForm Noncommercial License 1.0.0. It says this furthers its ‘commitment to open-source software’.
Download Obscura VPN for Linux
The Obscura VPN Linux app is available for a slate of popular distributions, including Ubuntu. It officially supports Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and later, making it compatible with Pop!_OS 24.04, Linux Mint 22.3 too – but only Intel/AMD devices (no ARM build yet).
Installing it on Ubuntu requires adding the Obscura Linux repo, but the company has made this easy with a Deb package (it installs the repo, not the app):
curl -fsSLO https://linux-pkgs.obscura.com/deb/obscura-repository.deb
sudo apt install ./obscura-repository.deb
Then:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install obscura
In case it wasn’t obvious, this isn’t a free VPN service; you need an active, paid subscription to use it.
Costing around $8 a month, Obscura VPN is more expensive than other options, but you may feel paying a premium for decoupled routing and QUIC obfuscation is so worth the extra cost.
New subscribers can get 25% off with promo code LINUX26 for a short time.
Though Obscura is somewhat obscure among VPN providers, as it’s not aggressively advertised on social media, doesn’t have a free tier and doesn’t pad its offerings out with additional services like webmail, office suites and cloud storage, it may be worth looking into.
- This is the same concept as Apple’s iCloud+ Private Relay. There, Apple is the entry node and Cloudflare, Fastly or Akama are used as the exit node. Yes, companies whose privacy credentials some may sniff at, but I’m talking conceptually here. ↩︎