Desktop Operating Systems
Windows and MacOS have many features that violate your privacy. Microsoft and Apple are able to collect all your data (including, but not limited to: keystrokes, searches and mic input, calendar data, music, photos, credit card information and purchases, identity, passwords, contacts, conversations and location data). Microsoft Windows is also more susceptible to malware and viruses, than alternative systems.
Switching to Linux is a great choice in terms of security and privacy - you don't need necessarily need to use a security distro, any well-maintained stable distro is going to be considerably better than a proprietary OS
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Open-source security-oriented operating system for single-user desktop computing. It uses virtualisation, to run each application in its own compartment to avoid data being leaked. It features Split GPG, U2F Proxy, and Whonix integration. Qubes makes is easy to create disposable VMs which are spawned quickly and destroyed when closed. Qubes is recommended by Edward Snowden.
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Whonix is an anonymous operating system, which can run in a VM, inside your current OS. It is the best way to use Tor, and provides very strong protection for your IP address. It comes bundled with other features too: Keystroke Anonymization, Time Attack Defences, Stream Isolation, Kernel Self Protection Settings and an Advanced Firewall. Open source, well audited, and with a strong community - Whonix is based on Debian, KickSecure and Tor.
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Tails is a live operating system (so you boot into it from a USB, instead of installing). It preserves your privacy and anonymity through having no persistent memory/ leaving no trace on the computer. Tails has Tor built-in system-wide, and uses state-of-the-art cryptographic tools to encrypt your files, emails and instant messaging. Open source, and built on top of Debian. Tails is simple to stop, configure and use.
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Parrot Linux, is a full Debian-based operating system, that is geared towards security, privacy and development. It is fully-featured yet light-weight, very open. There are 3 editions: General Purpose, Security and Forensic. The Secure distribution includes its own sandbox system obtained with the combination of Firejail and AppArmor with custom security profiles. While the Forensics Edition is bundled with a comprehensive suite of security/ pen-testing tools, similar to Kali and Black Arch.
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Aimed at journalists, activists and whistle-blowers, Discreete Linux is similar to Tails, in that it is booted live from external media, and leaves no/ minimal trace on the system. The aim of the project, was to provide all required cryptographic tools offline, to protect against Trojan-based surveillance.
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Alpine is a security-oriented, lightweight distro based on musl libc and busybox. It compiles all user-space binaries as position-independent executables with stack-smashing protection. Install and setup may be quite complex for some new users.
Objective of this page
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Notable Mentions
Septor is a Debian-based distro with the KDE Plasma desktop environment, and Tor baked-in. Designed for surfing the web anonymously, and completing other internet-based activities (with Thunderbird, Ricochet IM, HexChat, QuiteRSS, OnionShare). Septor is light-weight, but comes bundled with all the essential privacy + security utilities (including: Gufw, Ark, Sweeper, KGpg, Kleopatra, KWallet, VeraCrypt, Metadata Anonymisation Toolkit and more).
Subgraph OS is designed to be an adversary resistant computing platform, it includes strong system-wide attack mitigations, and all key applications run in sandbox environments. Subgraph is still in beta (at the time of writing), but still is well tested, and has some nice anonymization features
For defensive security, see Kali and BlackArch, both are bundled with hundreds of security tools, ready for pretty much any job (not reccomended as a daily driver!)
Other security-focused distros include: TENS OS, Fedora CoreOS, Kodachi and IprediaOS (Avoid systems that are not being actively maintained)
Notes
General Purpose Linux Distros
If you do not want to use a specalist security-based distro, or you are new to Unix - then just switching to any well-maintained Linux distro, is going to be significantly more secure and private than Windows or Mac OS. Since it is open source, major distros are constantly being audited by members of the community. Linux does not give users admin rights by default - this makes is much less likely that your system could become infected with malware. And of course, there is no proprietary Microsoft or Apple software constantly monitoring everything you do.
Some good distros to consider would be: Fedora, Debian, or Arch- all of which have a large community behind them. Manjaro (based of Arch) is a good option, with a simple install process, used by new comers, and expers alike. POP_OS and PureOS are reasonably new general purpose Linux, with a strong focus on privacy, but also very user-friendly with an intuitive interfac and install process. See Detailed Comparison.
BSD
BSD systems arguably have far superior network stacks. OpenBSD is designed for maximum security — not just with its features, but with its implementation practices. It's a commonly used OS by banks and critical systems. FreeBSD is more popular, and aims for high performance and ease of use.
Windows
Two alternative options for Windows users are Windows 10 AME (ameliorated) project and the LTSC stream.
- Windows 10 AME AME project aims at delivering a stable, non-intrusive yet fully functional build of Windows 10 to anyone, who requires the Windows operating system natively. Core applications, such as the included Edge web-browser, Windows Media Player, Cortana, as well as any appx applications (appx apps will no longer work), have also been successfully eliminated. The total size of removed files is about 2 GB. Comes as a pre-built ISO or option to build from scratch with de-bloat scripts. Strong, supportive community on Telegram.
- Windows 10 LTSC LTSC provides several security benefits over a standard Win 10 Installation. LTSC or Long Term Servicing Channel is a lightweight, low-cost Windows 10 version, that is intended for specialized systems, and receives less regular feature updates. What makes it appealing, is that it doesn't come with any bloatware or non-essential applications, and needs to be configured from the ground up by the user. This gives you much better control over what is running on your system, ultimately improving security and privacy. It also includes several enterprise-grade security features, which are not available in a standard Windows 10 instance. It does require some technical knowledge to get started with, but once setup should perform just as any other Windows 10 system. Note that you should only download the LTSC ISO from the Microsoft's official page
Improve the Security and Privacy of your current OS
After installing your new operating system, or if you have chosen to stick with your current OS, there are a couple of things you can do to improve security. See: Windows 10 security guide, Mac OS security guide or Linux security guide.
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