Ships with Tor Browser 9.0 and Linux kernel 5.3

Oct 22, 2019 17:45 GMT  ·  By

The Tails project released today the final version of the Tails 4.0 operating system, a major release that introduces numerous enhancements and updated components.

Based on the Debian GNU/Linux 10 "Buster" operating system, Tails 4.0 is here with up-to-date components to keep your online identity hidden from potential attackers. These include the latest TOR Browser 9.0 anonymous web browser, Tor 0.4.1.6 anonymous network client and server, OnionShare 1.3.2 anonymous file sharing tool, MAT 0.9.0 metadata removal tool, and KeePassXC password manager.

Tails 4.0 is also powered by the latest Linux 5.3 kernel series, shipping with Linux kernel 5.3.2 in the live ISO image, which brings better support for newer hardware and many other improvements. On top of that, Tails 4.0 ships with GnuPG 2.2.12, Enigmail 2.0.12, Electrum 3.3.8, Git 2.20.1, LibreOffice 6.1.5, InkScape 0.92.4, GIMP 2.10.8, and Audacity 2.2.2.

The Tails Greeter has received some enhancements in this release as well, especially for non-English users. Among these, we can mention faster language selection, simplified keyboard layouts list, working Formats setting, the ability to open help pages in other languages than English, as well as the ability to prevent additional settings from being applied when clicking on the Cancel or Back buttons.

"To make it easier to select a language, we curated the list of proposed languages by removing the ones that had too little translations to be useful. We also clarified how Chinese is listed by having different entries for simplified and traditional Chinese," reads today's announcement.

Tails now starts up to 20% faster

Apart from all the software updates, Tails 4.0 brings numerous under-the-hood improvements to make the live system start with up to 20% faster than previous versions, while requiring about 250MB less RAM. Also, the ISO image is now with 47MB smaller than that of Tails 3.16. Support for Thunderbolt devices has been added as well, and the on-screen keyboard is now easier to use.

Other enhancements include support for USB tethering from iPhone, the ability to display the password of the persistent storage when creating one, support for using the default bookmarks from Tor Browser, and new documentation pages for securely erasing an entire device and backing up persistent volumes. The Home launcher, Scribus app, and default accounts in Pidgin were removed from Tails 4.0.

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