If you want to keep the government and other people out of your business when surfing the web, Tails is an excellent choice. The Linux-based operating system exists solely for privacy purposes. It is designed to run from read-only media such as a DVD, so that there are limited possibilities of leaving a trail. Of course, even though it isn't ideal, you can run it from a USB flash drive too, as optical drives have largely fallen out of favor with consumers.

Today, Tails achieves an important milestone. Version 3.0 reaches RC status -- meaning the first release candidate (RC1). In other words, it may soon be ready for a stable release -- if testing confirms as much. If you want to test it and provide feedback, you can download the ISO now.

This is quite the significant upgrade, as the operating system is moving to a new base -- Debian 9 "Stretch." The Debian kernel gets upgraded to 4.9.0-3, which is based on Linux kernel 4.9.25. As previously reported back in February, Tails 3.0 will drop 32-bit processor support too.

Using Tor is a huge part of the privacy aspect of Tails, and the tor web browser sees an update to 7.0a4. Tor itself is updated to 0.3.0.7-1. Less important is the move from Icedove to Thunderbird for email. This is really in name only, as Debian has begun using the "Thunderbird" branding again. From a feature perspective, it is inconsequential.

Of course, bug fixes are included, and the Tails team shares them below.

Install xserver-xorg-legacy, to fix support for various graphics

adapters that still don't work with rootless X.Org (Closes: #12542).

adapters that still don't work with rootless X.Org (Closes: #12542). Use the "Intel" X.Org driver for Intel Q35 and Intel Atom

D4xx/D5xx/N4xx/N5xx graphics controllers (refs: #12219).

D4xx/D5xx/N4xx/N5xx graphics controllers (refs: #12219). Give UEFI bootloaders upper-case filenames (Closes: #12511).

Some UEFI firmware, such as the one in the ThinkPad X220, only recognize them if they have an upper-case name.

KeePassX: enable "Automatically save after each change" again, like we did in Tails 2.x (fixes a regression introducedin 3.0~beta3).

Install packages needed by the "Test speakers" functionality (Closes: #12549).

Fix automatic upgrades when one is already applied (Closed:

#12501).

Ready to download the ISO? You can get it here. Don't forget to to read the full changelog before using it.

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