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Concerns raised over Bitwarden moving further away from open source

phoronix.com

11–20 of 61 posts

Re: Concerns raised over Bitwarden moving further away from open source

#11

I never understood the appeal of web-based password managers. KeePass all the way, all offline, no randomly changing UI, everything in a single .db file. Need syncing? Use Cloud storage service.

Can it fill passwords in iPhone Safari?

Yes, with integrations like Strongbox

Re: Concerns raised over Bitwarden moving further away from open source

#13
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can it fill passwords in iPhone Safari?

Yes, via the KeePassium client: https://github.com/keepassium/KeePassium As with all iOS apps, there’s no guarantee that the open source app code on GitHub corresponds to what you install from the App Store. I have been very satisfied with KeePassium, it integrates with all the cloud storage providers I’d want and the app itself works well.

Notably though, Keepassium from the App Store is licensed differently than the version on GitHub. Only the Keepassium team can ever actually submit to the App Store as GPL software is banned, and so they do not accept contributions so that they have the ability to submit under a proprietary license.

Re: Concerns raised over Bitwarden moving further away from open source

#14
post #12

What alternatives do you recommend?

KeepassXC.

https://keepassxc.org/

Recently switched over from a premium Bitwarden account to it. Import from Bitwarden was a breeze.

Note that KeepassXC only writes to a local encrypted db file. Syncing that across devices is left to you. I used Syncthing for that.

Re: Concerns raised over Bitwarden moving further away from open source

#15
post #12

What alternatives do you recommend?

KeepassXC. https://keepassxc.org/ Recently switched over from a premium Bitwarden account to it. Import from Bitwarden was a breeze. Note that KeepassXC only writes to a local encrypted db file. Syncing that across devices is left to you. I used Syncthing for that.

> Syncing that across devices is left to you. I used Syncthing for that.

So it doesn't really solve my problem

Re: Concerns raised over Bitwarden moving further away from open source

#16
post #12

What alternatives do you recommend?

KeepassXC. https://keepassxc.org/ Recently switched over from a premium Bitwarden account to it. Import from Bitwarden was a breeze. Note that KeepassXC only writes to a local encrypted db file. Syncing that across devices is left to you. I used Syncthing for that.

No support for passkeys, either.

Re: Concerns raised over Bitwarden moving further away from open source

#17
post #4

I left Bitwarden as soon as they started using dark patterns in their UI. They got in the way instead of enhancing the user experience.

What dark patterns have you observed that I should keep an eye out for?

Making it seem like you can use a premium feature, only to present you with a "You need to upgrade" view after a few steps.

Eg for Keypass and authenticator.

Re: Concerns raised over Bitwarden moving further away from open source

#18
Disappointing that a website that touts itself for, among other things, "Open Source News", is missing the core definition issue in that headline: what is at issue here has zero to do with how open or closed the source code is. It's only related to how free/libre the license is.

That's a big deal to some, no doubt, but it's important to be precise about language in cases like this, especially since folks will undoubtedly assume that this means secret user-hostile things will now be embedded in the source code, sight-unseen.

Re: Concerns raised over Bitwarden moving further away from open source

#19
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

KeepassXC. https://keepassxc.org/ Recently switched over from a premium Bitwarden account to it. Import from Bitwarden was a breeze. Note that KeepassXC only writes to a local encrypted db file. Syncing that across devices is left to you. I used Syncthing for that.

No support for passkeys, either.

It does support passkeys.

Re: Concerns raised over Bitwarden moving further away from open source

#20
post #12

What alternatives do you recommend?

KeepassXC. https://keepassxc.org/ Recently switched over from a premium Bitwarden account to it. Import from Bitwarden was a breeze. Note that KeepassXC only writes to a local encrypted db file. Syncing that across devices is left to you. I used Syncthing for that.

Bad news there. https://forum.syncthing.net/t/discontinuing-syncthing-androi...
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