Tails 5.0 release announced, version in which a series of changes and updates have been made to the base of the system.
For those who don't know about Tails, they should know that this is a distribution that It is based on the base of the Debian 10 package. y designed to provide anonymous access to the network, in order to preserve the privacy and anonymity of the user on the network.
Anonymous output from Tails is provided by Tor In all connections, since the traffic through the Tor network, they are blocked by default with a packet filter, with which the user does not leave a trace on the network unless they want otherwise. Encryption is used to store user data in save user data mode between startups, in addition to presenting a series of preconfigured applications designed for the security and anonymity of the user, such as a web browser, the mail client, an instant message client among others.
Main new features of Tails 5.0
In this new version, which is presented as the main novelty of the distribution, we can find the change in the system base to Debian 11 (Bullseye), while the user environment part was updated to Gnome 3.38 (previously version 3.30 was used). Provided the ability to use overview mode to access windows and applications.
The OpenPGP Applet and Key Management Utility and passwords have been superseded by the Kleopatra certificate manager developed by the KDE project.
By default, the option to automatically install additional software selected by the user (additional software) when Tails starts it is enabled. Packages with additional programs are stored in the drive area designed for permanent storage of user data (Persistent Storage).
Another change that stands out is that you can now use the Activities overview to access windows and applications. To access the overview of Activities, you can:
- Click on the Activities button.
- Launch the mouse pointer to the upper left active corner.
- Press the super key
- And with it you can see the windows and applications in the overview. You can also start typing to find your apps, files, and folders.
Another change that stands out is the new support for driverless printing and scanning in Linux makes it easier to get recent printers and scanners working in Tails.
On the other hand, it is mentioned that unlocking VeraCrypt volumes that have very long passphrases has been fixed.
Regarding software updates, it is mentioned:
- Tor Browser to 11.0.11
- GNOME from 3.30 to 3.38, with many small improvements to the desktop, the core GNOME utilities, and the lock screen.
- MAT from 0.8 to 0.12, which adds support for cleaning metadata from SVG, WAV, EPUB, PPM, and Microsoft Office files.
- Audacity from 2.2.2 to 2.4.2.
- Disk Utility from 3.30 to 3.38.
- GIMP from 2.10.8 to 2.10.22.
- Inkscape from 0.92 to 1.0.
- LibreOffice from 6.1 to 7.0.
Finally if you are interested in knowing more about it of this new version of Tails, you can check the details In the following link.
Download Tails 5.0
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.
The image you get from the download section is a 1.GB ISO image capable of running in live mode.
How to update to the new version of Tails 5.0?
For those users who have a previous version of Tails installed and want to upgrade to this new version, can do directly following the instructions in this link.
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.