1. Releases
  2. Code
  3. Documentation and website
  4. User experience
  5. Infrastructure
  6. Funding
  7. Outreach
  8. Translation
  9. Metrics

Releases

The following changes were introduced in Tails 3.9:

Additional Software

You can now install additional software automatically when starting Tails.

When installing an additional Debian package from Tails, you can decide to install it automatically every time.

To check your list of additional software packages, choose Applications ▸ System Tool ▸ Additional Software.

VeraCrypt integration

To unlock VeraCrypt volume in Tails, choose Applications ▸ System Tool ▸ Unlock VeraCrypt Volumes.

The integration of VeraCrypt in the Files and Disks utilities was done upstream in GNOME and will be available outside of Tails in Debian 10 (Buster) and Ubuntu 18.10 (Cosmic Cuttlefish).

Read our documentation on using VeraCrypt volumes.

News reading in Thunderbird

Thunderbird is now the official RSS and Atom news feed reader in Tails.

Liferea will be removed from Tails in version 3.12, early 2019.

Other changes

  • Improve the configuration of the persistent storage to make it easier to scroll and consistent with the GNOME guidelines.

Included software

  • Update Tor Browser to 8.0, based on Firefox 60 ESR.

  • Update Thunderbird from 52 to 60.

  • Update Tor to 0.3.4.7-rc.

  • Update Electrum to from 3.0.6 to 3.1.3.

Hardware support

The following updates make Tails work better on recent hardware (graphics, Wi-Fi, etc.):

  • Update Linux to 4.17 which also fixes the Foreshadow attack.

  • Update the DRM and Mesa libraries to improve support for some graphics cards.

  • Update the Intel and AMD microcodes and most firmware packages.

Fixed problems

  • Stop displaying the Enigmail setup wizard every time Tails is restarted. (#15693 and #15746)

  • Show a spinner while starting Tor Browser, Tails documentation, and WhisperBack. (#15101)

  • Use Tor Browser again for browsing the documentation offline. (#15720)

  • Show Synaptic and Root Terminal even when no administration password is set. (#11013)

  • Tails Installer

    • Link to upgrade documentation when upgrading. (#7904)
    • Hide the Reinstall option when the USB stick is too small. (#14810)
    • Correct the size of the USB stick in the confirmation dialog when reinstalling. (#15590)

Code

  • We successfully collaborated with the Tor Browser team to fix a severe issue with Tor Browser 8.0 in Tails, that was discovered shortly before the Tails 3.9 release. Thanks a lot to everyone who helped!

  • We fixed a number of regressions that were introduced in Tails 3.9, such as:

    • Fix the update of Additional Software. (#15978)
    • Fix opening VeraCrypt file containers using the Open With Unlock VeraCrypt Volumes of GNOME Files. (#15954)
    • Fix the display of the General tab in the preferences of Tor Browser. (#15917)
    • Fix displaying the help of GNOME Videos. (#15841)

Documentation and website

User experience

  • We did some stats on the amount of RAM on computers sending us WhisperBack reports.

    Between 5–10% of our users seem to have less than 3 GiB of RAM.

Infrastructure

  • We started planning the migration of our Redmine to a different hostname and a new VM.

  • We wrote a number of automated tests to ensure we notice important regressions in the VeraCrypt support introduced in Tails 3.9.

  • We completed our investigation of Dogtail's long-term viability. Our conclusion is that we can keep using it, should start contributing to the maintenance of the package in Debian, but invest as little as possible into Dogtail for now as our long-term concerns are not fully addressed.

  • We investigated what prevented us from giving more Tails developers access to our Jenkins CI platform so far. We've identified a few blockers, resolved them, and started giving such access more liberally. This should make Tails development work more pleasurable and efficient for a few more people.

  • The Tails sysadmin team discussed hiring a new team member, the profile of the person we will be looking for, and how we could share our work with them.

  • We made great progress towards hosting our website on our own infrastructure. The final steps and migration should happen by the end of the year.

Funding

  • We published our finances for 2017.

  • We prepared our end-of-year donation campaign and will launch it in the coming weeks.

  • We added the postal address of RiseupLabs to our donation page as a way of receiving US checks.

  • We removed Flattr as a donation method because it is not worth it (raised ~200€ in 3 years).

Outreach

Past events

Translation

  • Someone started translating our website in Catalan.

All the website

  • de: 55% (3192) strings translated, 6% strings fuzzy, 48% words translated
  • es: 57% (3331) strings translated, 1% strings fuzzy, 47% words translated
  • fa: 36% (2094) strings translated, 9% strings fuzzy, 38% words translated
  • fr: 91% (5296) strings translated, 1% strings fuzzy, 89% words translated
  • it: 32% (1874) strings translated, 6% strings fuzzy, 28% words translated
  • pt: 27% (1614) strings translated, 7% strings fuzzy, 24% words translated

Total original words: 61424

Core pages of the website

  • de: 81% (1562) strings translated, 9% strings fuzzy, 81% words translated
  • es: 96% (1850) strings translated, 1% strings fuzzy, 93% words translated
  • fa: 33% (639) strings translated, 11% strings fuzzy, 33% words translated
  • fr: 98% (1894) strings translated, 0% strings fuzzy, 98% words translated
  • it: 67% (1291) strings translated, 15% strings fuzzy, 66% words translated
  • pt: 45% (877) strings translated, 12% strings fuzzy, 49% words translated

Total original words: 17456

Metrics

  • Tails has been started more than 697 294 times this month. This makes 23 243 boots a day on average.
  • 9964 downloads of the OpenPGP signature of Tails ISO from our website.
  • 131 bug reports were received through WhisperBack.