Forticlient remote access is fucking slow. It takes forver to log in and for it to finalize the connection. Also kinda feels like they just gave openvpn a fresh coat of paint in order to siphon more money for licenses out of their customers.

Forticlient is an app, why do VPN services have apps? You can just add a VPN connection to your network config right? I expect that to be more lightweight / efficient. Also consider it safer, who says that your whole VPN app isn't a backdoor. I don't see the benefit of such app. Maybe it's better encrypted?

It's to tick boxes on audits.

@retoor bcz something has to establish a connection with the vpn server, create a vNIC, set up routes, run pre/post-scripts, h/c and monitor the conn.

@retoor each vpn service has its own way of making handshakes, maintaining conn. They may operate in plugin-fashion, supporting loads of optional crypto libs and versions, algos. Your system may be running a bare minimum client version. Or an outdated one. Official vpn clients ensure compatibility with whatever version you're connecting to and should support all the plugins, libs, etc. If it fails, means it's not supposed to work