[[!meta title="Tails report for February, 2014"]]

Releases
========

Tails 0.22.1 was released on February 4.

Metrics
=======

- Tails has been started more than 222 134 times in February.
  This make 7 933 boots a day in average.
- 453 082 downloads of the OpenPGP signature of Tails ISO. Weird.
- 92 reports were received through WhisperBack.

Code
====

New features:

- Great progress was made towards better integrated, and more usable,
  [[!tails_gitweb_branch feature/bridge-mode desc="support for using
  Tor bridges"]] ([[!tails_ticket 5479]]). This implied working with
  the TBB team to improve Tor Launcher, so that we can start it as
  a standalone XUL application, instead of as a browser add-on.
- [[MAC spoofing support|contribute/design/MAC_address]] was
  [[!tails_gitweb_branch feature/spoof-mac desc="completed"]] and
  merged ([[!tails_ticket 5421]]).
- [[!tails_gitweb_branch feature/6508-incremental-upgrades-phase-four
  desc="Phase four"]] of incremental upgrades was completed
  ([[!tails_ticket 6508]]), and given it was enabled by default in
  Tails 0.22.1, most users will see it in action when 0.23 is out.
- One may now [[!tails_gitweb_branch_winterfairy
  bugfix/allow-ibus-start desc="start IBus manually"]] in locales
  environment where it is disabled by default ([[!tails_ticket
  6656]]).
- [[!tails_gitweb_branch feature/amd64-kernel desc="Ship a 64-bit
  kernel"]] in replacement for the 686-pae one ([[!tails_ticket
  5456]]).
- The branch to [[!tails_gitweb_branch 5588-no-autologin-consoles
  desc="stop creating auto-login text consoles"]] was merged
  ([[!tails_ticket 5588]]).
- Support for persistence of I2P state was [[!tails_gitweb_branch_kytv
  feature/i2p-persistence desc="drafted"]] ([[!tails_ticket
  5544]]).
- The website [[!tails_gitweb_branch feature/cleanup-ikiwiki-setup
  desc="lock down"]] was merged and deployed.
- A branch to [[!tails_gitweb_branch
  feature/6790-remove-cookie-monster desc="stop installing Cookie
  Monster"]] was prepared ([[!tails_ticket 6790]]).
- Some initial work to improve the Greeter's administration password
  interface was done ([[!tails_ticket 5594]]).

Software updates:

- I2P has been updated to 0.9.11 ([[!tails_ticket 6696]]).
- We have uploaded Pidgin 2.10.9 to squeeze-backports, and we now
  install it from there ([[!tails_ticket 6661]]).
- Install [[!tails_gitweb_branch feature/poedit-from-backports
  desc="Poedit from squeeze-backports-sloppy"]], where we have
  uploaded it some time ago ([[!tails_ticket 6456]]).
- The fact that Linux 3.12 is not in Debian unstable anymore
  [[!tails_gitweb_branch bugfix/linux-kbuild-3.12-from-testing
  desc="was taken into account"]].
- The [[!tails_gitweb_branch feature/linux-3.13 desc="branch"]] that
  installs Linux 3.13 was updated.

Bug and regression fixes:

- The Intel Management Engine Interface driver [[!tails_gitweb_branch
  feature/disable-mei desc="was disabled"]]. This fixes memory wiping
  at shutdown ([[!tails_ticket 6460]]) on some, if not all, hardware.
- The possibility to switch identities in the Tor Browser
  [[!tails_gitweb_branch_winterfairy bugfix/torbutton-new-identity
  desc="was added back"]] ([[!tails_ticket 6383]]).
- An issue that lead to releasing needlessly big ISO images
  [[!tails_gitweb_branch
  bugfix/6390-dont-include-APT-lists-and-cache-in-the-ISO desc="was
  resolved"]] ([[!tails_ticket 6390]]).
- [[!tails_gitweb_branch feature/create-additional-software-config]]
  was merged.

Towards Tails based on Debian Wheezy:

- I2P packages compatible with Debian Wheezy were prepared, and are
  now installed in the [[!tails_gitweb_branch feature/wheezy]] branch.
- Application launchers were added to the GNOME panel.
- A launcher to start the documentation viewer was added to the
  applications menu.
- A more standard icon is used for the shutdown button.

Documentation, website and localization
=======================================

- Icons for the different roles on the Contribute section were
  finalized and [[deployed live|contribute]].
- The [[blueprint/FAQ]] was greatly expanded, and is now almost ready
  for prime-time.
- We have made good progress on specifying how the Tails logo should
  look like ([[!tails_ticket 5797]]).
- It was documented how to [[improve Tails by working on
  Debian|contribute/how/debian]]. We have received positive feedback
  from Debian contributors about it.
- Many small improvements to the documentation and its translations
  were done, including:
  * quite a few clarifications in the documentation for new
    contributors;
  * [[!tails_gitweb_branch doc/system_requirements_improvements
    desc="updated"]] system requirements documentation;
  * [[!tails_gitweb_branch doc/change_persistence_passphrase
    desc="documented"]] how to change the passphrase for the
    persistent volume ([[!tails_ticket 5621]]).
- Links to the I2P website were [[!tails_gitweb_branch_kytv
  bugfix/new-i2p-site desc="updated"]].
- Documentation for the new MAC address spoofing feature was drafted.
- Work is in progress on documentation about contributing to Tails in
  the infrastructure (systems administration, automation) area.

Infrastructure
==============

- Our Puppet modules were [published](https://git-tails.immerda.ch/).
  This was a first blocker before we can welcome contributions to
  our infrastructure.
- The system that hosts our [[!tails_redmine "" desc="Redmine"]]
  was re-installed from scratch on a new machine, upgraded to Debian
  Wheezy and to Redmine 1.4.4.
- Some improvements to our automated test suite were merged:
  [[!tails_gitweb_branch test/fix-persistence-checks]],
  [[!tails_gitweb_branch test/keep-volumes-tag]], and
  [[!tails_gitweb_branch test/5959-antitest-memory-erasure]].
  Thanks to this and the robustness improvements brought by the move
  to RJB, we were finally able to remove two of the most painful sets
  of tests from our manual test suite.
- A mailing list for early testers was created and is being set up.

On-going discussions
====================

- [Usecases for the Cookie Monster browser
  extension?](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2014-February/004804.html)
- [Tails
  logo](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2014-February/004841.html)
- [How to remove identifying information in bug
  reports?](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2014-February/004984.html)
- [Numlock on by
  default?](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2014-February/004986.html)
- [Various](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2014-February/004923.html) [issues](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2014-February/005042.html) with Vagrant.
- [Interactions between Tails and TBB
  developers](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2014-February/004885.html)
- [Adding BitMessage and Bitcoin-QT to
  Tails](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2014-February/004850.html)
- [MAC address 'spoofing' and
  randomization](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2014-February/004842.html)
- [Adapting Tor Launcher for
  Tails](https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2014-February/004819.html)
- We were contacted by a few people who want to use Tails as
  a flexible framework, and build customized derivatives on top of it.
- We are discussing who we will invite to the 2014 Tails contributors
  summit, that should be a bit more crowded than usual.

Funding
=======

- We have discussed with GNOME how they could use the money they have
  raised for privacy and anonymity improvements.

Outreach
========

- We have been working with people who want to build bridges between
  the graphics designers and usability experts community on the one
  hand, and Free Software developers on the other hand. Thanks to this
  collaboration, it is likely that Tails will go through a usability
  study in a few months, followed by a hackfest that will put at work
  designers and usability experts for finding solutions to (some of)
  the identified issues. The Tails sprint in July might host
  this hackfest.
- One of us attended FOSDEM, and got a chance to talk with many
  interesting people in person there.
- We got in touch with the people behind
  [Freepto](https://www.freepto.mx/), and are looking how our two
  projects could collaborate more.
- We are participating in two new Debian teams: the [Debian OTR
  Team](https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/OTR) and the [Debian AppArmor
  Profiles Team](https://wiki.debian.org/AppArmor/Contribute).

Press and testimonials
======================

* 2014-02-27: In his article "[Why It’s Vital For Users to Fund Open-Source
  Encryption
  Tools](https://pressfreedomfoundation.org/blog/2014/02/why-its-vital-public-fund-open-source-encryption-tools)"
  Trevor Timm from Freedom of the Press Foundation explains that Tails « has
  been vital for most, if not all, of the NSA journalists. [...] Its prime use
  case is journalists trying to communicate or work in environments in which
  they may normally be at risk or compromised. The NSA stories have been the
  biggest story in journalism in the past decade, yet the tool the reporters
  rely on is incredibly underfunded, is maintained by only a handful of
  developers, and operates on a shoestring budget. »
* 2014-02-07: In his review of [uVirtus](http://uvirtus.org), Kheops, from
  Telecomix concludes that « Users should prefer Tails and other mature secure
  live distributions (such as IprediaOS, Liberté Linux, Privatix and Whonix)
  over uVirtus since they provide a real safety improvement to the user. For any
  activity that does not entail transferring large quantities of data (such as
  video files), there is no strong reason to prefer uVirtus over any of these. »
