Linux Gets New Firewall

The Linux firewall of the last eight years, iptables, will soon be ditched to make way for its successor, nftables.

Announced with little fanfare last week by iptables developer Patrick McHardy, the launch of the nftables alpha has barely been mentioned by the press.

That's somewhat surprising, considering the new software will represent the biggest change to Linux firewalling since the introduction of iptables in 2001.