The LiveUSB Linux distribution, Tails (the amnesic incognito live system), has received a new release candidate for the upcoming 3.2 update that’s due out on the 26th of this month. The update comes with some big under-the-hood changes to the system which should improve hardware support and the email experience.
If you’ve ever decided to try Tails on newer hardware, you may have had some driver issues; with this release, Tails ships with the Linux 4.12.12 kernel which is one of the latest. With it, users will get a better hardware experience; for example, the NVIDIA Maxwell series of graphics cards are now supported.
Another change which users may notice is the upgraded Thunderbird. The email client was bumped to version 52.3.0 and the Tails team said that it “should work exactly like before, or better.” Seeing as Mozilla has stopped bringing major features to Thunderbird you won’t see anything new but if you’ve noticed any issues, these might be fixed.
Over the last week or so you might have read about ‘BlueBorne’ which is malware that spreads to devices using Bluetooth. In order to protect against this attack, Bluetooth support is now completely disabled on Tails. Obviously, some users have Bluetooth hardware they may need so Tails is asking for feedback about the change.
Other changes to the system include:
- The Root Terminal has gone through some significant back-end changes; please make sure it works like before (or better)!
- [Added] PPPoE support; if you have a DSL or dial-up connection that uses PPPoE, please give it a try!
Lastly, this release comes with Tails Installer 4.4.19. The Tails developers have tried to make it a little smarter in this release. It gets rid of the splash screen and detects when Tails is already installed on the target device, then proposes an upgrade. Overall the user experience has been improved and unsurprisingly, the team wants to get your feedback on the updated Tails Installer.
You can find the complete announcement on the Tails website alongside instructions on how to update an existing Tails disk and download fresh images.
Source: Tails