from the diminished-user-base-on-old-boxes dept.
The privacy-centric TAILS Linux distro (The Amnesic Incognito Live System) announces:
Tails 3.0 will require a 64-bit x86-64 compatible processor. As opposed to older versions of Tails, it will not work on 32-bit processors.
We have waited for years until we felt it was the right time to do this switch. Still, this was a hard decision for us to make.
[...] Our current goal is to release Tails 3.0, and stop supporting computers with a 32-bit processor, on June 13, 2017.
Announced February 1: Tails 2.10 is out.
The site's news page (which could REALLY use #FragmentIdentifiers MUCH more effectively) says:
Tails 2.11 is scheduled for March 3rd.
Related Stories
TAILS, The Amnesic Incognito Live System, is a privacy-centric Linux distro based on Debian.
Softpedia reports
Tails 2.11 [will] be the last [version] to ship with the I2P anonymizing network software. I2P 0.9.25 is included in Tails 2.11, and it's already a very old version. The decision was made because the Tails team don't have the time to maintain I2P in their distribution.
[...] Two new features have been added in today's Tails 2.11 release, namely a notification to inform users that the upcoming Tails 3.0 Live CD won't start on a very old computer with a 32-bit processor, as well as another notification which will warn you that the I2P software will be removed in the next version, Tails 2.12.
Tails 2.11 also comes with the Tor Browser 6.5.1 anonymous web browser, and includes a bunch of security fixes for the infamous local root privilege escalation (CVE-2017-6074) by disabling the dccp module. Additionally, Linux kernel 4.8.15 was installed to prevent the GNOME desktop environment from freezing on Intel GM965/GL960 GPUs.
[It also] addresses an issue with the Tor Browser that did not display the offline warning when attempting to open the local documentation of Tails, as well as a rare problem that caused automatic upgrades to be applied incorrectly.
Previous: TAILS 3.0 Will Require a 64-Bit Processor
(Score: 4, Insightful) by takyon on Sunday February 05 2017, @07:35PM
Let me guess, the newer x86-64 chips are also the ones that introduce TPM/IME/etc. So by not updating for 32-bit users and forcing the use of owned hardware, everybody loses.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 05 2017, @08:33PM
Yes and finally without a doubt we know who is behind TAILS.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday February 05 2017, @08:46PM
NSA orchestrated the Snowden revelations to get people interested in useless and fucked encryption technologies! Edward Snowden is a double agent!! The NSA has a quantum decryption machine!!!
📶💩😓🔫🔫🔪🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥👽🐙💉💀
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday February 05 2017, @09:59PM
I thought it was a collusion conspiracy to get people to buy new hardware, kinda like how Vista was slow as shit on anything but a supercomputer when it was released.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday February 06 2017, @01:05PM
All the complaining about Vista was due to Microsofts's retarded services that ground your disk 24/7 and robbed CPU/memory. Useless indexing services, super fetch, and a few others I forget were all culprits. Once you disabled them, your system improved greatly. Though, It was still an absolute memory hog. I remember paying Crysis on Vista with 2GB. You could start a game and play through. But if you saved, and tried to load that save, game crashed with an out of memory error. Vista really needed 4GB to make it useful as at idle it would suck up 1+GB.
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Sunday February 05 2017, @08:47PM
According to tech.support@amd.com
"I would like to inform you that PSP technology is available only with selected A-Series APUs and E-Series APUs.
There is no PSP technology in FX series Processors."
PSP being AMD's answer to ME/TPM.
Have to trust something.
Of course, this does nothing for the huge swathes of the world's population who have older machines and no access to upgrades.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday February 05 2017, @08:59PM
I don't think AMD is using the FX codename for Zen/Ryzen chips:
http://wccftech.com/amd-ryzen-am4-processor-family-leak-r7-1800x-flagship/ [wccftech.com]
PSP has been renamed to AMD Secure Processor, so that might hurt your search for answers.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 05 2017, @09:51PM
AM4 *DOES* have PSP/SP.
Meaning 2-3 generation old intel hardware is the best you can get and mostly disable the Management Engine/Security Processor.
For AMD 2nd Gen G34 chips, or AM3+ chips are the best you can get on the AMD side (with ECC), or FM2 (not +!) on the consumer side.
Anything newer from either company has non-microcode signed firmware binaries running unknown software on secondary processors, many of which have unrestricted, or unrestrictable access to main memory, and in some cases complete use of the IO bus without CPU/chipset notification to the OS.
This is a dark time for computing, unless RISC-V or SH/J chips get released in a desktop/notebook featureset. All the current alternatives either have their own signed management processor implementation, or lack the memory/io bus options to allow full system construction.
Secondarily we need an open source gpu taped to complement it. There are at least two projects out which might cover this, at least one of which should allow OG3 or OGL4 level support with sufficient speed and memory for a composited desktop but not 3d gaming without further refinements.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 05 2017, @10:30PM
Of course, this does nothing for the huge swathes of the world's population who have older machines and no access to upgrades.
Considering how many of these people are EXACTLY the target audience for T(A)ILS, this really is a head scratcher of a change at this point. I know people who still use 32 bit computers as their primary computers here in the United States. They're not big modern gamers, and generally just browse the web and perform basic office functions along with text based protocols (irc, email, etc). For the use case for many people, they're perfectly fine, functional computers. The idea that someone in most oppressive regimes (particularly one who is working against the power structure) can necessarily afford to upgrade a computer that otherwise still works fine seems a bit poorly thought through. And while perhaps other distros with different aims could say "so just use the older version and maybe take some extra firewall measures", that idea would just be plain silly with T(A)ILS, as out of date privacy software may as well be no software at all, in many cases.
Eventually being 64 bit only is a sensible move, but I really must say I think it's too early.
Perhaps a decent alternative (or supplement) to going this route would be to roll out a build-your-own-iso script/tool to support varying architectures. Especially with Apple now looking at making more use of ARM chips, we may have to admit that the days of an architectural monoculture are behind us.
(Score: 1) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Monday February 06 2017, @03:26AM
Maybe their chosen web-browsers are dropping 32-bit support.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 05 2017, @08:52PM
For the record, you can get 64-bit processors that don't have TPM and IME (and AMD's equivalent of IME). There are real reasons to go 64-bit only, including security improvements, like NX bits and increased memory space, and cutting down on bugs and workload for the developers. However, I question whether the tradeoff is worth it, given what the user base of TAILS happens to be from their figures versus what people imagine it is. But I can see their assessment going the other direction. Worst case scenario, I can see a fork where people just do minimal fixups and recompilation of TAILS source to keep 32-bit stuff going.
(Score: 1) by Burz on Sunday February 05 2017, @10:02PM
There is older 64bit hardware without IME.
TAILS doesn't want the burden of maintaining their own EOL 32bit apps. And look at Qubes OS... no 32bit support at all.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by cykros on Sunday February 05 2017, @10:36PM
Qubes OS is an entirely different use case system. Often, a privacy oriented system is used to do very little beyond upload some files, send some emails, or other communication where paranoid privacy is absolutely called for. As such, a system with very low resources, such as an older 32 bit machine, is entirely reasonable.
Qubes OS otoh aims to be a virtualization platform that facilitates the running of many discrete operating systems. Naturally, this is fairly resource intensive. Even attempting to run this type of system on an older 32 bit system would be a hobbyist exercise at best, much like those who get C64's up on the Internet in the 21st century.
You're comparing apples to oranges.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Monday February 06 2017, @02:13AM
Qubes OS otoh aims to be a virtualization platform that facilitates the running of many discrete operating systems.
Its goal is security, and virtualisation is a means to that. "Security by compartmentalization," they call it.
https://www.qubes-os.org/intro/ [qubes-os.org]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 05 2017, @08:42PM
For the most part, a computer is a computer; if you need to compute something, it should be possible on any machine, given enough time, and storage, etc.
So... why must 32-bit support be dropped—why is is necessary to drop support for was hitherto been the most ubiquitous form of computing? Well, the only reasonable answer is that the TAILS project is poorly designed; that's it.
It should be perfectly reasonable for someone with a 32-bit machine at least to be able to throw a switch to compile a working version of TAILS for himself; if that's not possible, the only reasonable explanation is that the TAILS project is poorly designed.
If you cannot even trust that such basic, generic engineering has been handled, then how can you possible trust that TAILS is doing what it's supposed to be doing???
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday February 05 2017, @08:50PM
TAILS is an OS with a bunch of bundled software, and much of that bundled software is likely moving to 64-bit only. Do you want the TAILS developers to maintain their own forks of Firefox, Tor, I2P, etc.?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 05 2017, @09:14PM
That's what this means; it's as simple as that. The world is run on very poorly designed software. Period. Full Stop.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday February 05 2017, @11:39PM
even if the source code is 32/64-bit clean, you have to test the built product. If nothing else there could be code generation bugs in the compiler. I've actually seen these in my work.
It's a lot of labor to test a product as large and complex as TAILS. It's reasonable that they want to focus their effort where it is the most effective.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by KilroySmith on Monday February 06 2017, @12:20AM
So, do you have any experience at all with writing and maintaining an OS, as opposed to, say, an end-of-term project for your sophomore year?
Didn't think so.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 06 2017, @02:11AM
Thanks for asking.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 06 2017, @03:06PM
....without a disk drive!!!!1111
YOU MONSTERS!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 06 2017, @05:05PM
you can, with sd2iec and/or easyflash!
well
maybe you can't. but you could store a small linux ISO on them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 06 2017, @08:33PM
I'm switching to Windows 95.