Tails is a privacy and strongly security-focused Linux distribution designed to be run on a live USB drive, allowing users to boot the operating system on any computer while leaving no trace of their activity on the host computer.
The distro routes all internet traffic through the Tor network, providing a high level of anonymity and including a wide range of privacy and security tools such as the PGP email client, the Electrum Bitcoin wallet, and the VeraCrypt disk encryption software.
Yesterday, the Tails Project announced the general availability of Tails 5.9 with yet another dose of novelties and bug fixes. So, let’s have a look at them.
Tails 5.9 Highlights
The Tor network lies at the heart of the Tails, and the Tor browser is its significant component. So, in Tails 5.9, the browser has received an update to v102.7, and Tor itself has been updated to v0.4.7.13. On top of that, the devs bumped Thunderbird’s email client version to 120.6.
Under the hood, Tails 5.9 is powered by the Linux kernel 6.0.12, which improves compatibility with modern devices such as graphics and Wi-Fi.
Another change in this release is the removal of the confirmation dialog when starting the Unsafe Browser app, which was previously the default behavior.
On the bugfix side, Tails 5.9 brings several important ones. For example, AppImages that use the Qt toolkit, such as Feather and Bitcoin-Qt, now start correctly. Moreover, the devs fixed the Persistent Storage issue not being activated and also the case with the application menu display being broken for some GTK3 applications installed as optional software.
You can refer to the announcement for detailed information about all changes in Tails 5.9. In addition, you can download the latest Tails release from the official website.
