Tails is based on Debian 11 (Bullseye).

Included software

  • GNOME, an intuitive and attractive desktop environment (More...)

Networking

Desktop edition

Encryption and privacy

Additional software

Additionally, you can install in Tails any other software available in Debian.

To install additional software automatically when starting Tails, use the Additional Software feature of the Persistent Storage.

Additional features

  • automatic mechanism to upgrade a USB stick to newer versions
  • can be run as a virtualized guest inside VirtualBox (More...)
  • 64-bit PAE-enabled kernel with NX-bit and SMP support on hardware that supports it
  • Some basic accessibility features
  • Some application isolation with AppArmor
  • To prevent cold-boot attacks and various memory forensics, Tails erases most memory on shutdown and when the boot media is physically removed.

Multilingual support

When starting Tails, you can choose between a large number of languages, including Arabic, English, Farsi, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Turkish, and more.

Some of these languages could not be thoroughly tested as we don't speak every language in the world. If you find issues using one of the supposedly supported languages, don't hesitate to tell us about it. E.g. Tails probably lacks some non-Latin fonts or input systems.

If you wish to make it easier to use Tails for your language speakers, see the translators guidelines.