What's this about?
Tailscale released Tailcat, which does what netcat does — pipe raw data between two machines — but over Tailscale's encrypted peer-to-peer network instead of the open internet. 493 points on HN.
What exactly is netcat?
The plumbing tool of the Unix world: it opens a network connection and moves bytes through it, so you can transfer a file, test whether a port is listening, or wire two programs together across machines. It is beloved and completely unauthenticated, which is why it is a footgun on any untrusted network. Putting it on an authenticated mesh keeps the simplicity and removes that particular gun.
What's the community saying?
Reception is warm and largely non-controversial — an obvious combination executed well. The main threads are practical use cases for moving data between personal machines, and appreciation that it keeps netcat's interface rather than inventing a new one.