Few hours ago the new version of the Linux distribution Tails 4.0 was announced, being this one of the first versions of Tails to be based on Debian 10 Buster, jalong with which also the system kernel was updated to version 5.3.2, which brings a great deal of support for new components to the distribution, among other changes.
For those who are still unaware of Tails, you should know that this Linux distribution it is based on Debian packages and intended to provide anonymous access to the network. Anonymous access to Tails is provided by Tor. All connections, except traffic through the Tor network, are blocked by default with a packet filter.
Encryption is used to store user data in the mode of saving user data between startups
Main new features of Tails 4.0
In addition to those mentioned at the beginning, in Tails 4.0 we can find a large number of updates that were incorporated to the different components of the system.
Of which one of the main which is Tor, its version 9.0 was included which is based on Firefox 68 ESR and it contains a number of updates to other components as well including Tor to 0.4.1.6 and OpenSSL to 1.1.1d.
Alson Various performance improvements to the system are highlighted, such is the case that the developers comment that Tails 4.0 was optimized to start up to 20% faster. In addition to that they are working to optimize system memory usage, as they mention in the ad that Tails 4.0 requires approximately 250MB less RAM.
And that also the system image was reduced 47 MB smaller than Tails 3.16.
Regarding the package of the system in Tails 4.0, se you can find the updated versions of Audacity from 2.1.2 to 2.2.2, GIMP from 2.8.18 to 2.10.8, Inkscape from 0.92.1 to 0.92.4, LibreOffice from 5.2.7 to 6.1.5, git from 2.11.0 to 2.20.1, OnionShare from 0.9.2 to 1.3.2, Enigmail to 2.0.12 and gnupg to 2.2.12. On the other hand, Electrum also stands out from 3.2.3 to 3.3.8, with which Electrum works again in Tails.
For its part, the Tails initial configuration wizard "Tails Greeter" received several improvements, These include language selection, keyboard layout list, help pages, and more.
Finally, if you want to know more about the details of this release of Tails 4.0, you can visit the announcement of this new version In the following link.
Download Tails 4.0
Si you want to try or install this new version of this Linux distribution on your computer, You can obtain the image of the system which is already available from its official website in its download section, link is this.
Regarding the requirements of this system in order to run it on your computer you must have at least these requirements to be able to install it without problems.
- The first and most important is that you have either an internal or external DVD reader or the ability to boot from a USB memory.
- Tails requires a 86-bit x64-64 compatible processor: IBM PC compatible and others, but not PowerPC or ARM so Tails does not work on most tablets and phones.
- 2 GB of RAM to work without problems. Tails is known to work with less memory, but you may experience strange behavior or crashes.
How to update to the new version of Tails 4.0?
For those users who have an older version of Tails installed and want to upgrade to this new version. They should know that the direct update to Tails 4.0 is not availableTherefore must perform a manual update.
For this they can make use of their USB device that they used to install Tails, they can consult the information to carry this movement on their computer In the following link.
Or for those who prefer to do a clean install, they can get the Tails 4.0 image from the following link.