14 DAY TRIAL // Tails, a live system that aims to preserve your privacy and that helps you use the Internet anonymously, has just reached version 1.0 after a long development period.
Tails is a distribution based on Debian and TOR technologies that aims to keep its users as anonymous as possible. It is using the right tools for the job, including a heavily modified Web browser based on Mozilla Firefox ESR and patches from Iceweasel and Tor Browser.
The developers have been working on the system for a very long time, but don't get fooled by the version number. Tails has been stable for years and the previous version was 0.23, which means that this is more like a statement than anything else.
“Version 1.0 is often an important milestone that denotes the maturity of a free software project. The first public version of what would become Tails was released on June 23 2009, when it was called Amnesia. That was almost five years ago. Tails 1.0 marks the 36th stable release since then.”
“This has been a continuous work over the past years, and you will see that 1.0 itself does not bring a lot of effective changes for the user. Still, to mark the occasion, we integrated our new logo on the website and the boot menu,” reads the official announcement.
According to the changelog, the web browser has been updated (includes Firefox 24.5.0esr, Iceweasel patches, and Torbrowser patches), Tor has been updated to version 0.2.4.21-1, client-side blacklists have been added for all Tor directory authority keys that were vulnerable to Heartbleed, and it should protect clients in case attackers were able to compromise a majority of the authority signing and identity keys.
Also, inbound I2P connections have been disabled, a link has been added to the system requirements documentation page in the Tails Upgrader error, I2P has been updated to version 0.9.12-2~deb6u+1, the TorBrowser profile has been imported, a new custom version of Tor Launcher has been imported, the Tor Launcher now handles incomplete translation, the boot splash has been updated, and more.
Even if Tails has been around for years, the distribution was brought to the front line by Edward Snowden, who said that he used it to stay hidden when he communicated with the journalists. The OS is Live, so you can easily use it from a USB stick.
A complete changelog can be found in the official announcement. You can download Tails 1.0 right now from Softpedia.