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As online privacy becomes an increasingly important concern, the demand for privacy-focused operating systems is growing. I looked at the most popular privacy-focused OSes: Tails, Qubes OS, Whonix, and PureOS. Each has its unique way of enhancing privacy and security, along with quirks relating to installation and usage.
Tails (The Amnesic Incognito Live System) is a live operating system designed for anonymity and privacy. It routes all internet traffic through the Tor network, ensuring your browsing activity cannot be traced. One key feature is its amnesic feature, which leaves no trace on the computer you use once you shut it down.
Tails OS is not meant to be booted from a computer’s hard drive. A big part of its amnesic feature relies on booting Tails using a USB drive, which you can easily do with theprovided Tails ISOandan ISO-to-USB tool. Since Tails is meant to be used by people under imminent threat, such as whistle-blowers, journalists, and activists, using a USB drive makes a lot of sense. But unlike other live bootable OSes on a USB, Tails ensures anonymity by:
That said, Tails is great for short-term use, particularly when you need strong anonymity on shared or public computers. However, its lack of persistence and slower performance may not make it ideal for everyday computing.
Qubes OS takes a different approach by focusing on security through compartmentalization. It isolates different tasks into separate VMs (Virtual Machines) or cubes. When one cube is compromised, the others remain unaffected. This structure makes it highly effective at preventing malware from spreading across your system.
Unlike tails that rely on a physical medium for isolation, Qubes uses virtualization to enforce security. Qubes ensures all virtualization is secure by operating directly on top of the hardware as aType 1 hypervisor instead of a Type 2 hypervisor, which runs on top of a host OS.
Of course, this also means you cannot run Qubes effectively on a Type 2 hypervisor such as VirtualBox and VMware. So, you’ll have to dedicate an entire machine to using Qubes, which can be a problem for people who don’t have a spare computer lying around.
But if you can spare a PC for Qubes, you get to enjoy high levels of security through:
Qubes is ideal for advanced users and professionals who prioritize security. Its virtualization-based approach offers robust protection against targeted attacks, but it can be cumbersome for less technical users.
Whonix operates similarly to Tails, focusing on anonymity via the Tor network, but with a twist: it runs in a virtualized environment just like Qubes. Whonix consists of two VMs: a gateway that handles Tor connections and a workstation where you perform your activities. This setup makes it much harder for malware or leaks from the workstation to expose your real identity.
What makes Whonix a great security-focused OS is:
Just like Tails and Qubes, Whonix excels in cases where strong anonymity is required. However, its use of Type 2 hypervisor makes Whonix a less isolated OS compared to Qubes and not as amnesiac as Tails.
Purism’s PureOS, offers a balance between privacy and usability. Unlike the other OSes mentioned above, PureOS is intended for daily use, focusing on privacy without sacrificing on convenience. It is based on Debian Linux and comes preinstalled on Purism’s Librem laptops and phones, but you can install it on other hardware as well. PureOS stands out as a great privacy-focused OS with the following:
PureOS avoids data collection by using free, open-source software and defaulting to privacy-respecting applications, like the Firefox-based PureBrowser and DuckDuckGo for search. However, it doesn’t force all network traffic through Tor like Tails or Whonix (which are specifically designed to use Tor as a built-in privacy layer). Instead, PureOS prioritizes transparency, user control, and privacy through open software rather than ensuring anonymity through strict rules.
5The Best Privacy-Focused Operating System
Tails, Qubes, Whonix, and PureOS are all great privacy-focused operating systems. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses, its own place, and will be useful for different types of users. So, there’s really no clear winner on what OS is best overall, but when it comes to specific use cases, one of these OSes will be better than the others.
I personally find that running Whonix as a VM is the best option for a Windows user like me and probably for most people using Windows and macOS. Most people simply don’t need the level of isolation that Qubes provides or the level of inconvenience in using an amnesiac OS like Tails. Of course, if I was a Linux user I would have gone with PureOS.
