Performance improvements are now rolling out for the Linux Proton VPN client

Hi everyone,

Today we are starting the rollout of an updated Linux client (4.7.4), which introduces bug fixes & performance improvements across the board.

This update was prompted by your feedback regarding the app freezing occasionally, which has now been fixed. Additionally, as part of this update, Linux users should expect to see up to a 70% decrease in memory usage, thanks to an improvement in the ‘Search’ feature. We have also improved the start-up time when launching the app in the logged-in state.

As always, performance may vary from machine to machine based on specifications. Let us know if this improvement has been notable on your end, and if you have suggestions or feedback, please drop it in the comments below.

Thank you for your support,

Proton Team

Just tested on my Ubuntu 24.04 machine, huge improvement, thank you!

Very good. I am hopeful to see Linux proton apps for all proton products like drive, …

please imply long promised ‘Stealth’ and ‘Smart’ protocols to Linux application! Long time promised and still not included…

Running the client on Debian 12: the new update drastically improve the experience. No more hangings, and really very fast. Thanks a lot!

Do you suggest we re sowload the package or update feom thr spplication manager?

Great thanks. Please also add connection details like we have on windows and android.

Just want to say thanks to you all, specifically the Linux team. This version is way more performant on my Arch based distro, Garuda!
Love the ‘search as you type’ feature in the search bar so we don’t have to scroll all around to connect.

are there any plans to develop a client for the LXDE desktop? I have the feeling many ppl use the LXDE desktop over GNOME or KDE for servers

Thank you for making a post about it here. Appreciate it.

Could you all look into improving the window management of the app? I know it’s written in GTK (wish it was Qt(6)), but on KDE Plasma (6.2) & Wayland, the app’s window behavior is wonky. It’s the only app I use that has these problems. It never remembers its window placement upon minimizing to tray, or closing & opening the app. Even forcing it with Kwin’s rules doesn’t work consistently. Maybe this is related to Wayland though. (?)

Shoutout to the team for these improvements. It takes less than a second to start now whereas it needed around 5 seconds before. Great stuff!

Tested on Linux mint and the performance improvement is noticeable, thank you

client for opensuse?

I noticed this morning my VPN was loaded super fast. I have the client load at start and auto connect. I was like… huh that seemed fast. Nice to know the reason and it wasn’t one time thing. Very noticable improvement!

Edit: I just saw in the settings (which I don’t think was there before?) a Start Minimized option! Nice!

Tested in kubuntu 24.10. UI freezing gone final ly :slight_smile:

App is still clunky if you’re not running GNOME…(KDE5 here), it’ll come up, disappear, then magically re-appear because it seems to have issues rendering. None of my other GTK apps have that issue.

But still no split tunneling, or ability to access local networks unless you ‘roll your own’ using OpenVPN and manual route setting and pray you don’t sunset specific servers. .

Most other VPNs that support Linux have these features either in their GUI app, or command line apps, and can still select servers based on country and load.

Well that’s probably why my vpn stopped working.

I get an error message now and app hangs on “Loading app…”:
“Something went wrong
We’re sorry, an unexpected error occured.Please try again.”

Perhaps related

I have reinstalled after a full purge and I get the same error. I’m on Ubuntu 20.04 with Gnome 3.36.8.

edit I was able to get it working by running as sudo in the terminal which is not ideal. Maybe it’s a python version problem?

edit2 After restart, neither the app nor sudo in the command line can start protonvpn.

I can’t see a reason why your Debian/Linux package missing the app code file itself from the ‘download’ part of your site. Only security keys and repository link is present in ‘proton*.deb’ there. There’s a lot of places in the world where you just can’t connect proper installation routine your way! I demand REAL Debian package to be available for download and ready to be installed even offline!

Is there an official place where we can see the latest version, and past, along with any release notes?

So far the new version is looking good!

So far its working much better for me now! How far away are devs from adding split tunneling feature to linux app?