First Alpha version is now ready for public testing

Nov 19, 2016 04:27 GMT  ·  By

A few days after the announcement of Tails 2.7, the development team behind the popular amnesic incognito live system based on Debian GNU/Linux unveiled a few technical details about the next major release.

Yes, we're talking about Tails 3.0, which is now in development and appears to be the next major update of the anonymous live OS that ex-CIA employee Edward Snowden used to protect his identity online. Tails is a Debian-based GNU/Linux distribution built around the popular TOR anonymity network and Tor Browser anonymous browser.

While the current version of Tails is based on the Debian GNU/Linux 8 "Jessie" operating system, it appears that the Tails 3.0 major update will be based off Debian GNU/Linux 9 "Stretch," which is expected to arrive sometime in spring 2017. Also, it looks like Tails 3.0 will be the first release to work only on 64-bit computers.

"Tails 3.0 will be the first version of Tails based on Debian 9 (Stretch). As such, it upgrades essentially all included software," revealed the Tails devs in the release announcement. "It also requires a 64-bit computer, and GNOME Shell is now configured to use its default black theme."

Powered by Linux kernel 4.8, uses the GNOME 3.22.2 desktop

From the looks of it, Tails 3.0 is currently powered by Linux kernel 4.8 and uses the GNOME 3.22.2 desktop environment by default. We don't know yet if the development team will keep this software versions for the final release or upgrade to more recent ones, such as GNOME 3.24 and Linux kernel 4.9.

If you want an early taste of Tails 3.0, a first Alpha ISO image can be downloaded right now from our website. However, please try to note the fact that you won't be able to install it from a Tails 2.x release, nor to upgrade from Tails 2.7 or a previous version. Also, be aware that this is a pre-release version and it contains unresolved issues. Video overview courtesy of W00den D3sk.