14 DAY TRIAL // Just a few moment ago, the Tails development team proudly announced the official and general availability of the Tails 2.6 anonymous Live CD Linux operating system based on the latest Debian technologies.
Earlier this month, we reported on the availability of the first development version of Tails 2.6, the RC1 build, which also appeared to be the only one, and now, nearly three weeks later, we can get our hands on the final release, which brings many updated components and several new features.
According to the release notes, the biggest new features in Tails 2.6 are the enablement of the kASLR (kernel address space layout randomization) in the Linux kernel packages that ship with the popular amnesic incognito live system, protecting users from buffer overflow attacks.
Another interesting feature implemented in Tails 2.6 is the inclusion of the rngd package, which is used in the system for random number generation in kernel. "We installed rngd to improve the entropy of the random numbers generated on computers that have a hardware random number generator," explained the devs.
Now powered by Linux kernel 4.6
Tails 2.6 is powered by Linux kernel 4.6, but this branch reached end of life a month ago, on August 16, 2016, and it won't receive any security patches anymore, so it is better that you update Tails to a newer kernel version, such as those from the Linux 4.7 kernel branch.
Other updated components included in Tails 2.6 are TOR 0.2.8.7, Tor Browser 6.0.5, Icedove 45.2.0, Tor Birdy 0.2.0, and Electrum 2.6.4. Moreover, the anonymous Live CD used by ex-CIA employee Edward Snowden to stay hidden online comes with improvements for Intel SST sound cards and Texas Instruments Wi-Fi adapters.
Last but not least, the non-free APT software repositories have been removed, a dedicated homepage has been added for Tor Browser, and the shutdown process has been sped up by setting a new trigger for RAM. Also, automatic configuration has been disabled for Icedove when using OAuth.
Download Tails 2.6 right now via our website!