Anonymizing Linux: Tails 6.19 and 7.0rc2 update packages

The Tails developers update the central packages of Tails 6.19. The release date for Tails 7.0rc2 is now fluctuating.

(Image: heise medien)

Aug 22, 2025 at 9:32 pm CEST

2 min. read

By

Dirk Knop

The makers of Tails have two new versions in their quiver: Tails 6.19 and Tails 7.0rc2. The 6.19 version essentially updates central components. The 7 release candidate brings minor improvements – and a fluctuating release date.

Irrelevant error message — In Tails 6.19, irrelevant error messages should no longer be displayed.

(Image: Tails)

The release announcement for Tails 6.19 mentions the update of the central anonymization components, among other things. The Tor browser comes in version 14.5.6, the Tor client in version 0.4.8.17. The mail client Thunderbird is included in version 128.13.0. The developers have also made a bug fix. When configuring bridges in the Tor connection, they have removed an irrelevant error message that only causes confusion.

Tails 6.19 is available for download as an image for USB sticks, and the maintainers also provide an ISO image for DVDs or VMs.

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New release candidate in the 7 development branch

The new Tails 7 branch only saw the light of day a few days ago. One of the most important innovations is the change of base to Debian 13 with the code name "Trixie". Gnome 48 is also used as the desktop environment. Some old tools have had to make way for new ones, although the developers have also broken things – for example, the "Root Terminal" can no longer be called up. Interested users have to make do with temporary workarounds, for example, by using the sudo -i command to obtain admin rights in the console that replaces the terminal.

Error message with insufficient RAM — If there is not enough RAM in the machine, Tails 7.0rc2 returns an error message.

(Image: Tails)

The second release candidate now available has minor improvements compared to the first version. For example, if a machine does not have the minimum required 3 GB of RAM, Tails 7 displays a notification. The programmers have renamed the "Root Terminal" to "Root Console" – which should make the manual workaround unnecessary. They have thrown out the "Places" menu completely. In the release candidate, the Linux kernel is a few builds further along than in rc1 and is now at version 6.12.41. The release date for Tails 7.0 was originally scheduled for October 16, 2025. Now the Tails makers are also talking about September 18 as a possible option. Apparently, the release candidates contain fewer bugs than expected.