Many app developers come up with various reasons for not supporting Linux natively — not enough resources, financial constraints, lack of adoption, not enough demand or requests are some of them. For AgileBits — the developer of self-titled ‘the world’s most-loved password manager’ 1Password, none of these reasons are quite applicable. Yet, even after 14 years of its launch, 1Password did not have a native Linux app.
The lack of Linux app led to the longest thread on 1Password support forum where users had been requesting native support for Linux since 2010. Although the AgileBits team never denied a possibility to support Linux, they did not seem very enthusiastic about it either. Now a decade later, the company is finally ready to launch 1Password for Linux.
AgileBits has announced 1Password for Linux development preview which supports major Linux distros. Currently, users can use the app as read-only. “You can sign in, view items, search, copy, and more, but you can’t edit or create anything,” says the announcement. The Linux app uses Rust programming language for the underlying logic, React for the GUI, and ring crypto library to power the end-to-end encryption.
In addition to a Linux app, AgileBits has also announced that open source projects can get 1Password account free for their teams. These accounts will continue to work after the development preview ends.
AgileBits plans to launch the final version of 1Password for Linux later this year. Until then, the password manager can be used for testing purpose. Follow this guide to install 1Password on a Linux distro.
I have been using 1Password for as long as I can remember using a password manager. Although there are other alternatives – both paid and free – I have enjoyed the ease of use, convenience, and feature-set 1Password has offered. Although nothing like a native experience, I have also used 1Password with WINE whenever I had to. With 1Password finally coming to Linux as a native app, I will be happy to try it out.
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