A stable release of the interface is available to simplify network settings - NetworkManager 1.36.0. Plugins to support VPN, OpenConnect, PPTP, OpenVPN and OpenSWAN are developed within their own development cycles.
Key innovations in NetworkManager 1.36:
- The IP address configuration code has been significantly redesigned, but the changes mainly affect internal handlers. For users, everything should work as before, apart from a slight increase in performance, reduced memory consumption, and better handling of settings from multiple sources (DHCP, manual settings, and VPN). For example, manually added settings now do not become obsolete even after receiving the settings for the same address via DHCP. For developers, the changes will make it easier to maintain and extend the code.
- Ignored routes for protocols not supported by NetworkManager, which will solve performance problems with a large number of entries in the routing table, associated, for example, with the operation of BGP.
- Added support for new route types: blackhole, unreachable and prohibit. Improved handling of IPv6 multipath routes.
- Removed support for "configure-and-quit" mode, which allowed NetworkManager to exit immediately after network configuration without leaving a background process in memory.
- Updated DHCP and DHCPv6 client code based on systemd.
- Added support for 5G NR (New Radio) modems.
- Provided the ability to select the Wi-Fi backend (wpa_supplicant or IWD) at the build stage.
- Enabled Wi-Fi P2P mode to work with IWD backend, not just wpa_supplicant.
- Added experimental support for running NetworkManager without root privileges.
Source: opennet.ru