Awesome Privacy

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.