I have basic (well, very basic, sadly) understanding how VPN works in general and am curious what is the upside of using this software over, for example, something like this (Angristan’s OpenVPN-install script). I understand that UI is more user-friendly but is there anything else I am missing?
VPN works on Link layer, provides a secured tunnel, Outline(Shadowsocks) works on transport/application layer, it’s a sock5 proxy.
Outline (Shadowsocks) acts as a socks5 proxy in your device, encrypts all your TCP and UDP traffic with a 256-bit cypher, then sends the data to the remote server using Shadowsocks protocol.
VPN has a very distinctive protocol character,it can easily detected by your ISP .
Outline(Shadowsocks) don’t generate many protocol fingerprints, it’s hard for ISP to determine whether you are using any sorts of proxies.
VPN is for users who want a secured tunnel connection, Outline is for users who want to bypass internet censorship while retaining a high connection speed.
one is a proxy…the other is a vpn…vpns use tunnels…proxies just encrypt and forward.
One has an application signature that can be detected (openvpn), the other, not yet.
OpenVPN is the past…and is slowly being overtaken by proxies because of better performance and lack of detection.