OpenVPN's Data Channel Offload is a feature that introduces a driver (Windows) or a kernel module (Linux) which allows the kernel to process OpenVPN packets without having to switch to user space. This massively increases throughput for OpenVPN tunnels, resulting in much higher speeds for the user.
Windows users automatically benefit from OpenVPN's DCO's speed by default when using UDP, TCP, Stealth, and WSTunnel beginning with Windscribe app version 2.12.x or later.
Linux users require app version 2.23.4 or later. DCO support requires the ovpn module in the kernel. The earliest kernel that supports the DCO module is 6.16.
# Import the OpenVPN GPG key
sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://swupdate.openvpn.net/repos/repo-public.gpg | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/openvpn-repo-public.asc
# Add the OpenVPN repository
echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/openvpn-repo-public.asc] http://build.openvpn.net/debian/openvpn/stable $(lsb_release -sc) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn.list
# Install it
sudo apt install ovpn-dkms