Although most Linux distros can be secured, some stand out by delivering advanced privacy and security features out of the box. These distros employ a range of apps and services to ensure you and your data remain safe and private.
If you’re looking for a secureLinux distro, here are five options that offer varying levels of built-in privacy and security enhancements. Depending on which you choose, the learning curve and ease of use can vary.
5Tails
There is a lot to like aboutTails (The Amnesic Incognito Live System). It’s designed to function as a live operating system and provides online anonymity by routing all your internet traffic exclusively through Tor. It also ships with a suite of online apps, such as Tor web browser,Thunderbird with OpenPGP, andPidgin with OTR, each pre-configured to safeguard your privacy. Plus, you get built-in tools for encrypting files, securely deleting files, and file sharing over the Tor network.
As the name suggests, the OS is amnesic by design, and forgets everything once a session is closed. The OS runs entirely in your system’s RAM and doesn’t write any data to the host computer. After each session, RAM is cleared, leaving no traces of your activity on the host system. If you like to save data from your activities on Tails, the OS has the option to create encrypted persistent storage.
Tails is based onDebianand uses a customized version of theGNOME desktop environment.
Download Tails
4ParrotOS Home
ParrotOSis best known for its impressive suite of penetration testing and digital forensic tools. However, it has a special “Home” edition, which ditches the advanced security assessment and offensive tools but retains the more general-purpose security and privacy enhancements.
Some of the security improvements you get with the ParrotOS Home include a hardened Debian core withAppArmor, a non-root default user, support for full disk encryption, andFireJailintegration for app sandboxing. It’s also designed to work seamlessly with containerization technologies.
Privacy enhancements include the AnonSurf feature to route all system-wide internet traffic throughTor, a pre-installed Tor web browser, and a custom Firefox profile with privacy-enhancing settings.
Like Tails, ParrotOS Home is based on Debian, but it relies on the MATE desktop environment.
Download ParrotOS Home
3Fedora Silverblue
Fedora Silverblueis distinct from my other recommendations, as it’s a mainstream Linux distribution designed to be reliable and secure for everyday computing. While it doesn’t boast built-in enhanced privacy and security tools that are available in my other recommendations, its strength lies in itsimmutable base operating system. This means the core OS remains read-only, preventing both user errors and malicious tampering, which significantly enhances the stability and security.
Another highlight of Fedora Silverblue is its preference forFlatpak packagesfor graphical apps. So the packages you install are sandboxed, which limits their ability to impact other packages or system files. For command-line apps and developer tools, the distro relies onToolbx, which provides a mutable containerized environment. This provides not only security but also practical benefits.
Silverblue also supports Atomic updates and easy rollbacks in case of an issue. Moreover, privacy-conscious individuals will appreciate the absence of extensive telemetry and personal data collection.
Ultimately, while Silverblue provides a robust and secure foundation, you can always further enhance its security and privacy to meet your specific needs, just as with any other Linux distribution.
Download Fedora Silverblue
2Whonix
Whonixis another impressive Linux distro that’s meant for folks with serious privacy and anonymity concerns. In its current form, it’s designed to run on top of a host operating system in a two-VM architecture. One of the VMs, called Whonix-Gateway, essentially functions as a router for your network traffic, ensuring that all your Whonix traffic goes through Tor. The second VM, called Whonix-Workstation, is where you perform all tasks. It’s completely isolated from the internet and your local network.
This architecture ensures there are no IP or DNS leaks and all your online traffic is anonymized through Tor. It’s also helpful in containing any compromises that may occur, preventing them from affecting your host system or revealing your identity.
Under the hood, it’s based on Kicksecure, a Debian-based hardened distro, and uses theXfce desktop environment. It receives many of Kicksecure’s security enhancements by default, including hardened kernel settings, compiler flags, and system configurations that reduce attack surfaces. You also get AppArmor andseccomp.
Download Whonix
1Qubes OS
Qubes OSis a widely liked Linux distribution that takes a practical approach to security. Rather than building a single impenetrable system, it uses compartmentalization to limit the possibility of a system compromise. It relies on isolated compartments or “qubes,” as they are called, to deliver enhanced privacy and security.
It leverages Xen-based virtualization to create and manage qubes, in which you perform all your computing tasks. Different qubes are used for different tasks, as needed. In addition to application qubes, where you’ll spend the bulk of your time, the OS has its own system or service qubes for tasks such as network access, firewalling, and USB devices. So, everything in your system is compartmentalized.
Qubes OS uses a Fedora base with the Xfce desktop environment for its core or admin qube. However, you have the option of using Debian or Whonix as the template base for application qubes. In addition to the official templates, several community-supported templates are available, includingUbuntu,Arch Linux, and Gentoo.
Download Qubes OS
Which Distro Should You Choose?
When it comes to selecting a secure Linux distribution, much depends on your needs, skill level, and desire to learn. Most secure distros are pretty different from your general-purpose distributions, as their primary concern is your privacy and security, and not the general user-friendliness. Also, not everyone needs the level of privacy or security offered by the bulk of my recommendations.
So, if you’re someone who just needs a reasonably secure Linux distro that can withstand the occasional threat from your online endeavors, Fedora Silverblue is a solid choice. Similarly, you can opt for ParrotOS Home if online anonymity is important to you, but you also want a distribution that can serve as your daily driver.
However, if you want enhanced security and prefer the peace of mind provided by compartmentalization, Whonix and Quebes OS are certainly worth considering. You can even combine Whonix with Qubes OS to get solid security and online anonymity.
Finally, Tails is a great portable distro to level up your online privacy whenever you need. Load it onto a USB drive and simply plug it in when you need online anonymity.
How to Get Started
Depending on which secure Linux distro you decide to go with, the process of getting it ready for use can differ slightly. For example, setting up ParrotOS Home, Fedora Silverblue, and Qubes OS is like most mainstream distros. You download the distro ISO, load it onto a USB drive using a tool likeRufus,Ventoy, orRaspberry Pi Imager, boot your system from this drive, and then follow the on-screen installation instructions.
However, for Tails, you don’t install it on a system; you simply create a bootable USB drive and use it to run Tails in live mode. Finally, unlike my other recommendations, Whonix resides in a virtual machine on your system. You’ll have to download the VM file from the company website and run it inOracle VirtualBox.
Remember, a Linux distro is only as secure as the person using it. So it’s a good idea to follow sound cybersecurity hygiene principles and not become entirely dependent on the distro to keep your data safe and secure.
If you’re interested in more Linux distros, you may want to read about thedistros for beginners,high-performance distros,lightweight distros, anddistros for programming.
