January has been a busy month with two releases including Tails 2.0.

Releases

The following changes were introduced in Tails 2.0:

  • Tails now uses the GNOME Shell desktop environment, in its Classic mode. GNOME Shell provides a modern, simple, and actively developed desktop environment. The Classic mode keeps the traditional Applications, Places menu, and windows list. Accessibility and non-Latin input sources are also better integrated.

  • Update Tor Browser to 5.5 (based on Firefox 38.6.0 ESR):

    • Add Japanese support.
  • Remove the Windows camouflage which is currently broken in GNOME Shell. We started working on adding it back but your help is needed!

  • Change to systemd as init system and use it to:

    • Sandbox many services using Linux namespaces and make them harder to exploit.
    • Make the launching of Tor and the memory wipe on shutdown more robust.
    • Sanitize our code base by replacing many custom scripts.
  • Update most firmware packages which might improve hardware compatibility.

  • Notify the user if Tails is running from a non-free virtualization software.

  • Remove Claws Mail, replaced by Icedove, a rebranded version of Mozilla Thunderbird.

  • HiDPI displays are better supported. (#8659)

  • Remove the option to open a download with an external application in Tor Browser as this is usually impossible due to the AppArmor confinement. (#9285)

  • Close Vidalia before restarting Tor.

  • Allow Videos to access the DVD drive. (#10455, #9990)

  • Allow configuring printers without administration password. (#8443)

Code

  • Tails Installer was made available in Debian.

  • Andrew Gallagher wrote a tool to clone and backup the persistent volume. Testing is welcome!

  • Christian Medel is working on a replacement for the defunct Windows Camouflage.

Documentation and website

  • All of our documentation was updated to Tails based on Jessie.

User experience

  • Tails Installer is now available in Debian and Ubuntu

Infrastructure

  • Our test suite covers 208 scenarios, 17 more than in August. We focused on making our test suite more robust.

  • The infrastructure to run our test suite on all the ISO images built automatically from development branches has been deployed, but still needs adjustments.

  • In January 757 ISO images were automatically built and tested by our continuous integration infrastructure.

  • We have a prototype for a monitoring system based on Icinga2, for our services.

Outreach

  • A Tails install party took place in Toulouse, France to celebrate the Tails 2.0 release.

Upcoming events

  • We will participate at the Internet Freedom Festival in Valencia, Spain from 1st-6th March 2016.

  • We will be at the Logan CIJ Symposium "Challenge Power", 11-12th March 2016 in Berlin, Germany.

  • The Freedom of the Press Foundation will organize a Tails workshop at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, USA on March 19.

On-going discussions

  • sycamoreone started started working on a blueprint to find a suitable replacement for Pidgin in the future.

  • A discussion about persistent Tor state has been relaunched.

Press and testimonials

Translation

Due to the Jessie release, a lot of our translated documentation is now outdated.

All website PO files

  • de: 28% (2236) strings translated, 2% strings fuzzy, 24% words translated
  • fa: 60% (4855) strings translated, 3% strings fuzzy, 69% words translated
  • fr: 41% (3301) strings translated, 3% strings fuzzy, 40% words translated
  • pt: 21% (1669) strings translated, 4% strings fuzzy, 19% words translated

Total original words: 86910

Core PO files

  • de: 90% (1202) strings translated, 7% strings fuzzy, 88% words translated
  • fa: 83% (1109) strings translated, 11% strings fuzzy, 76% words translated
  • fr: 84% (1125) strings translated, 9% strings fuzzy, 79% words translated
  • pt: 73% (982) strings translated, 16% strings fuzzy, 70% words translated

Total original words: 14326

Metrics

  • Tails has been started more than 571,109 times this month. This makes 18,423 boots a day on average.
  • 39,080 downloads of the OpenPGP signature of Tails ISO from our website.
  • 184 bug reports were received through WhisperBack.