Stuff like this in-kernel with Linux is heavily discouraged and you'd be almost publicly shamed. If it's a problem with user-space, simply use something else.

With Mac, you can usually handle the user-space scenario. Not so much the kernel-space one.

That's what's great about Linux. You don't have to submit to somebody else's will if you don't want to. It takes more effort, but good things always come at some cost.

Yep, if some linux kernel component would bypass iptables and called home, Linus would probably use some very very profound words, before denying the patch and effectively killing the "new feature".

And yet Linux is a terrible choice for the vast majority of users, no amount of "user choice" will change this. Most users don't need choice, they need structure and guide rails.

Apple is arguably engineering computers and OS UX "correctly," e.g. better for most people.

Then just .. don’t use private relay if you don’t want it?

The problem being reported hear is a VPN provider (or their firewall rules?) aren’t interacting well with what is fundamentally another firewall/vpn.

I’m not sure what the usual expected behavior is when you have multiple conflicting vpn+firewall products?

Also as far as I can make out private relay isn’t a vpn? It protects http[s], and for https I don’t know if it operates outside of safari?

I appreciate the fancy language conspiracy nonsense, but please look at actual facts:

* this is not free - it is part of the paid iCloud services afaik

* it is opt in - you have to decide you want to use this, they’re not just hoovering everything, which gets to

* even if they were hoovering everything, unlike a vpn, private relay is actually private

If you are trying to conceal yourself, VPNs services are routinely found to be logging what they say they aren’t, and fundamentally all traffic through a VPN can be logged by them. Private relay is strictly better privacy guarantees for connections that go through it rather than the VPN.

This provider points out a reasonable issue: they have added rules to simply block some connections entirely, and it seems like PR should respect that - but as I said above, I don’t know what the usual expected behaviour for operating multiple VPNs and firewalls concurrently is?

finally apple documents explicitly how you can disable iCPR completely, regardless of user setting.