New Product Request: 1Password for Linux [In Progress]

AGAlumB

@kuon: It's an interesting possibility, but it becomes a bit problematic when we make changes to the API/service (inevitable) which break things for 3rd party client and then we're not able to update them ourself to get our own customers back up and running. Not good. I won't say never, but it's something with a great deal of risk and little reward — though admittedly that's part of the appeal in some cases...albeit less so when we're talking about something we depend on heavily for our workflow.

Borz

@brenty Provide API as-is? does not guarantee backward compatibility, but providing timely documents that developers can have time to adjust

kuon

The beauty of an API is that you take very little risk. You can break it when you want, update it, remove it. Even Google removed some very popular and used API they had.

AG_Alles

Hi @kuon, @Borz! While you're absolutely right about the power an API can bring to ecosystems, that power is certainly a double edged sword. Brenty mentioned that one of the real challenges here is that we'd lose the ability to support our own customers, which is a huge priority and point of pride for us.

We feel it is very important that when someone is using 1Password that there is a reliable support channel. If we were to publish APIs and change them, there is no guarantee those changes would reliably propagate downstream, while also significantly increasing our testing and development overhead. If we were to decide that we had to change something, it wouldn't be right to "just kill it" and leave developers and their users adrift.

The end result could be a situation where customers might not be able to come to us for support, and those that do may not be able to get the support they need. It would be very frustrating to find that your favorite third party 1Password client is suddenly malfunctioning when all your most important data is contained within, or that it can no longer provide a needed function. As @brenty said, we never say never, but at this time we aren't devoting resources to investigating API options for third parties.

kuon

I understand your concerns, but I think you can just ask API users (developer using your API) to add a disclaimer that the only official supported way is the website or the official client.

Let's face it, it's to support Linux users who are used to have little support from many apps.

Anyway it's your call.

AGAlumB

I understand your concerns, but I think you can just ask API users (developer using your API) to add a disclaimer that the only official supported way is the website or the official client.

@kuon: I agree that that seems reasonable, but again, as an end user, it's pretty bad. Personally, I'd rather have a weaker option that's fully supported than a more powerful one that breaks after I become dependent on it. I know I can't speak for everyone though.

Let's face it, it's to support Linux users who are used to have little support from many apps. Anyway it's your call.

But I think you may be right that this is a bit of a special case, since most "end users" on Linux are probably more technical. Again, it isn't something we can devote resources to right now anyway, but we'll continue to evaluate things over time. Thanks for the feedback on this!

beirne

I'll add my name to those requesting Linux support. I was a Linux user for years, switched to the Mac, but am now making my way back to Linux as Apple is letting the Mac languish. Someday my 17" MacBook Pro is going to die and I'll have to replace it with something, and I am aiming toward Linux. 1Password is one of three apps that i will miss a lot on Linux. I understand the resource issues, but I wanted to at least show a bit more of the demand.

hhubris

Also adding my name to the very long thread. I'm at the end of my rope with Windows, and am likely going to replace it with Mint, or maybe Ubuntu soon. Without a viable 1password option, I'll have to look for something else which is a shame.

AGAlumB

@hhubris, @beirne: Thanks for taking the time to let us know. I know we have some Windows refugees and 17" MacBook fans here too, and some folks have found Linux to be a good alternative — even without a native 1Password app. :)

pj_gpg

In periodically reviewing the 1Password for linux thread(s) here that while there's a users that would really like to have a linux version AgileBits is focused on the existing clients (Windows, Mac, iOS and Android) and they believe that trying to tackle another platform would be detrimental to the bulk of their existing clients. In my view, that's a valid position to take (despite it not being what I want to hear).

I am familiar with Wine / Crossover and from reports currents versions of 1Password don't work in Wine (since I need Teams, I haven't even bothered trying to get 1PassWin v6 to run via Wine/Crossover).

That being said, since an older version did work with some success via Wine, have you explored the possibility of working / assisting code weavers in getting the current version of the windows app to work with their software? (I don't recall anyone suggesting this previously).

I'd willingly purchase a crossover license if I could run 1password v6 in it...

thanks.

pj.

alexthekone

I'll add my coin to the pile. One more interested user. I use 1password for teams at work and home. Having something the fulfills the purpose of 1password-helper to get the browser extention working would be plenty enough.

A cli would be even better... but I'm not pushing that one. ;)

I'll see if I can get my colleagues to spam this forum a little as well. :P

P.S. Fedora user here.

Ben

That being said, since an older version did work with some success via Wine, have you explored the possibility of working / assisting code weavers in getting the current version of the windows app to work with their software? (I don't recall anyone suggesting this previously).

This is an interesting suggestion, and while I personally support the mission of Wine and think it can be a great solution in some cases... I suspect many Teams would not be as open to this solution. Many folks are running Linux explicitly because they don't want the baggage associated with Windows, and so running an "emulated" (I know it isn't emulation but bear with me) Windows app on Linux is less than ideal, if even allowed at all.

I think perhaps what @alexthekone is suggesting would be better received: some sort of helper app that enables the use of the browser extensions on Linux. Perhaps a CLI to boot. Any major editing etc could be done from the web interface. I suspect what folks miss most on Linux at present is the browser extensions.

Ben

AGAlumB

@pj_gpg: As I understand it, the main hurdle to the new 1Password 6 Windows desktop app working with Wine is its .Net dependancies. Right now we're especially focused on getting the new codebase where it needs to be, but perhaps this is something we can look into in the future. Cheers! :)

bwilczek

Just letting you know that I'm cancelling my subscription and switching to competition product. Lack of decent linux support is unacceptable for me.

AGAlumB

@bwilczek: I'm sorry to hear that, but you should absolutely use whatever tool best fits your needs. If Linux is central to your workflow, it may not make sense for you to use 1Password since there is no native app for Linux. I apologize if you were initially under the impression that there was. Hopefully we'll be able to do something there in the future.

Coun

Don't apologize for something you're not willing to do. I find it simply idiotic stating that it's somehow not a smart idea to get into Linux right now. We all know you just don't want to take this opportunity (size doesn't matter ;) ) because of whatever reason, so stop faking.
("Too hard"? AKA "I'm not familiar with this")

I myself have never been a 1Password user. I didn't even know about it's features even though I actually do some effort in finding a password manager. I've never tried it, not because of it's business practices I really find sh*t, but because I simply have no need to. If there are other competitors who do the job and also support Linux, why bother?

I'm sorry but I'm a simple man. My blood goes boiling whenever I see someone denying whatever opportunity is smacking his/her face. I even created an account with a fake mail just to post on this.

You know why I landed on this page?... (And I'm guessing I will never return...)

Coun

For the readers:

This thread started on 2011...

rickfillion

I'm not sure where willingness comes into play here. I myself was a Linux user in the past, and I've been considering getting a Linux system running again lately. It'd sure make my life easier if we had a Linux client.

We're a pretty small team, and being small has a lot of advantages. But it also has disadvantages. It means we can only tackle so many things at once. For example I haven't been doing 1Password for Mac development lately because we've had another project that has needed a developer.

Rick

Coun

I still have my doubts though...

rickfillion

That's certainly understandable.

Rick

Timbojino

Maybe it's offtopic, but I've been using 1p on wine on Linux Mint and wondered if there is a way to atleast make it look less ugly?

AGAlumB

Maybe it's offtopic, but I've been using 1p on wine on Linux Mint and wondered if there is a way to atleast make it look less ugly?

@Timbojino: Maybe there's some way to skin Wine or something. Somehow it always looks (at least to me) even a bit worse than standard old-school Windows UI. I'm honestly not sure. It's been years since I had time for customization like that. :lol:

AGAlumB

@Coun: I haven't seen anyone but you say that Linux is a bad idea. Regardless of who you're trying to insult, that's not something that's acceptable here — or, really, anywhere. You're welcome to continue to participate in this (or any other) discussion, but only if you're able to follow the forum guidelines. Whether you choose to return or not, I hope you at least enjoy your weekend. :)

jordanbtucker

I sorry to say that I'm very disappointed in AgileBits. I wanted to move away from LastPass, but once I found out that 1Password doesn't have native Linux support, and their Chrome extension doesn't work without a native app installed, I can't migrate. The request for AgileBits to recognize the Linux community was made in 2011, and six years later AgileBits still hasn't delivered.

I was going to spend $5/mo on a family plan, but I guess I'll have to keep giving my money to LastPass instead.

matteoguglielmi

Please add support for Linux.

AGAlumB

@jordanbtucker: This really doesn't have anything to do with us choosing whether to "recognize" Linux. I could make some requests of you as well that would exceed your ability to produce results. Like us, there are only so many of you, and so many hours in a day, so we all need to prioritize our time and attention and guard it jealously. Right now, we're committed to a number of other projects, and have customers who (rightly) expect us to continue to support the products they pay for. We don't have a Linux app, so we don't sell one. Until we have some spare cycles, 1Password isn't coming to Linux (or any other platforms). It isn't personal. We simply have to say "no" to a lot of things in order to focus on our responsibilities. I'm sorry to hear that you won't be using 1Password, but if it doesn't meet your needs now that's the only reasonable course of action. And we'd rather you use a competitor's product than no password manager at all. Stay safe out there! :blush:

dimka

My vote goes for Linux too.
LastPass supports it, and that makes me think about switching.
Even reader that can allow passwords lookups will help a lot.
Maybe tweaking your android version can be done with fewer resources. After all many people manage to run Android apps on Linux, so there is a possibility that not a full development of the Linux version is needed, just some tweaking of the Android version will be enough. That will allow experts to figure it our and write help guides for others.
Thank you.

AGAlumB

@dimka: I don't think that would be a very good experience for anyone, even though I'm sure you wouldn't be alone in being willing to use that. It's a very cool idea though, and thinking about it warms my little nerd heart. :glasses:

ashneo76

36 pages of posts starting from 2010 till 2017. That is 7 seven years of people requesting a feature.

I am a long time user, but please consider the scenario with an open mind, pick a distro (say debian), make an app and make it a compiled tar.gz/.deb. The community will figure out the rest of the distros.

Ben

Hi @ashneo76

36 pages of posts starting from 2010 till 2017. That is 7 seven years of people requesting a feature.

Indeed. Unfortunately just because something is in demand doesn't mean that we have the means to do it. :(

I am a long time user, but please consider the scenario with an open mind, pick a distro (say debian), make an app and make it a compiled tar.gz/.deb. The community will figure out the rest of the distros.

Thanks for the feedback. :)

Ben