Tails (The Amnesic Incognito Live System) is a Debian-based distro that differs from all other Linux distributions in that it is a live system solely focused on privacy.
The distribution is intended for security paranoids looking for maximum personal security and anonymity on the Internet. But, of course, this has its drawbacks.
For example, your changes don’t get saved because it is primarily designed to run from a USB stick. So, as soon as you reboot, everything goes to default.
On top of that, because Tails is pre-configured to run everything through the Tor network, the speed of operations requiring a network connection is much slower than on a regular Linux distro.
Having made all these clarifications, letโs look at whatโs new in Tails 5.7, which was just released.
What’s News in Tails 5.7 OS
The significant new feature in Tails 5.7 is the addition of the Metadata Cleaner app, which, as the name suggests, is designed to clean metadata from files automatically associated with files when the latter is created.
As you know, the metadata included within a file can reveal a lot about you. For example, cameras save information on when and where you took a picture and the type of camera used. Office apps also add author and company information to documents and spreadsheets automatically.
So, if you don’t want to reveal this sensitive information, you can now “clean” it using Metadata Cleaner’s simple and user-friendly graphical interface.
The Tor network lies at the heart of the Tails Linux distro, and the Tor browser is its significant component. So, in Tails 5.7, it has received an update to v11.5.8, and Tor itself has been updated to v0.4.7.11. On top of that, two minor usability issues have been fixed in Tor Connection.
Under the hood, Tails 5.7 has the Linux kernel 5.10.0-19, which improves compatibility with modern devices such as graphics and Wi-Fi.
You can refer to the announcement for detailed information about all changes in Tails 5.7. In addition, you can download the latest Tails release from the official website.
Finally, remember that the distro is not intended to be a daily driver OS. In other words, Tails isnโt something youโll want to use if youโre a Windows or Mac user looking to switch to Linux for everyday jobs.
