LogMeIn Confirms Hamachi for Mac & Linux Planned for This Quarter

LogMeIn confirmed to TechNews.biz this week that Hamachi VPN services are planned to finally return soon for Mac and Linux.

Hamachi is a VPN solution that creates a transparent IP tunnel for computers across multiple groups. Instead of requiring complex configuration, the service works through a user-friendly login and password method. After joining computers to the same group, machines act as a virtual LAN tunneling through the internet. This allows services from file sharing to iTunes sharing to operate as if the machines were locally connected. In addition, Hamachi functions similar to parent LogMeIn, and bypasses the need for a VPN server.

However, when LogMeIn acquired Hamachi, both Linux and Mac service was dropped upon the next major release. While the service was maintained for existing customers, it has left a crater in the VPN Mac community since the launch of Intel-based Macs (Hamachi 1.0 does not work with Intel-based Macs).

Now, the company has confirmed to TechNews.biz that service will return later this quarter. The company noted that they hope to deliver it by the end of March, but that they are actively developing the latest versions to work consistently. That’s especially of interest to Mac users, who had to deal with command-line interface.

Hamachi has begun losing market share in recent years to competitors like NeoRouter, due to their support for Mac, as well as cheaper costs for commercial deployments. However, like Hamachi 1.0 for Mac, NeoRouter and other products also require command-line usage on Mac. Those few VPN solutions for Mac that do not require the use of Terminal, typically do not function cross-platform.

LogMeIn did not confirm if this update would mark a new generation of Hamachi services, or if Mac and Linux would be in-sync with the current Hamachi² version.