If you just want corpofree OS that is private but you  not need a whistleblower level of protection than don't go to hardcore opsec Linux distros like tails. It will just make you crazy.  Depending on your level of expertise go with Debian/Arch or any Debian derivatives. There are free from snooping but still reasonable for daily use.

Ubuntu is fine as a daily. Qubes and Tails are overkill, and a lot of other distros don’t have the same support as ubuntu

So basically any Linux distribution will be fine for me as I am not a criminal or whistleblower. Thank you everyone for your suggestions. Guess I’ll have to have a look for a general purpose Linux distro then that doesn’t got too extreme like qubes or tails.

They had a search box that included Amazon results of the things you searched for. The backslash was so heavy that it lasted a week. Since then, they have an opt in usage info thing, that basically includes what hardware you are using and which packages did you installed. Also, in the event of an error you're prompted with the possibility of sending it to Canonical for bug tracking purposes. If you select "No" in the first bootup and in the first error happening "No, and don't ask me again", no info is sent to Canonical.

Any Linux distro lol. Don't install qubes as a daily.

There isn't really a "Best OS" as a great deal of opsec/oppriv depends on your own behaviour rather than the technology you are using and pretty much all OS have holes - not to mention zero days.

If you want to go hardcore you could try Cubes OS but as i said - if your own privacy and security hygiene are not good, the OS won't protect you.

You also need to consider practicality issues - the more restricted you go the more convenience and usability you lose - sadly, although a strong privacy/security stance should not be negative sum, it currently is. So you need to be honest with yourself about what you need to do in your OS what tools you need to use for your day to day tasks etc. Then pick the OS based on the tradeoffs you are willing to make.

Great question! Noob questions are welcome.

Generally, an OS ran on a USB thumb drive are amnesiac. Meaning, no traces are left behind once you reboot or remove the usb drive from the machine.

From what I have been seeing, it usually is set up where you will have an amnesiac OS on a portion of the USB, and the rest will be a Veracrypt vault where you can save/retrieve files from the amnesiac OS.

Tails is such a goto one since it is actually a read only OS. My personal issue with tails is that you cant run a VPN client on tails. So, it would be wise to have a VPN on a router that your client connects to. Just be wary of which one you choose and that you can pay for the VPN with cash/crypto and it isn't located in a 5/14 eyes country and it doesn't keep any logs.

also, as a side note, you should check out Intel ME and AMD PSP. If you do a search on this forum, and even look for posts/comments from me about this you'll have your mind blown. To get around this, checkout coreboot based firewall devices such as u/protectli or actual machines. I have read that NVIDIA and INTEL have made it difficult to get full dual boot (for having both windows AND Linux) installed and running on the same machine when running Linux. So, look into that and maybe stick to something made with only AMD if you buy a laptop with coreboot for Linux.

Maybe Manjaro, Linux Mint, Elementary, Pop OS, xubuntu

Check all those out first to ensure they don't sell their users data

If you're feeling adventurous, you can try the free version of Debian. But every distro will be better than windows or mac. Maybe avoid stock ubuntu tho. They've done some shady stuff in the past like selling data to amazon etc.

QubesOS, it's not the most user friendly distro but it's probably the best option.

Linuxmint or Pop_OS

It depends on threat model.

Ultimate nuclear option is a thumb drive install of Tails.

Ubuntu is a classic.

Oh yeah, Qubes is NOT a good place to start. You gotta work your way up to that shit. Linux Mint is very friendly for a reformed Windows user, the interface is very similar.

Literally any Linux distro is better than Windows 10 or Mac OS. Except maybe RedStarOS. Any distro that claims to be privacy-respecting is only maximizing what any Linux machine can do. With Linux, you can customize literally anything, if you're willing to learn about the system.

Selecting the proper web browser and be cautious what website you’re visiting is more important to protect your privacy than the OS selection

Sounds like you want tails, whonix or qubes. Maybe at your level of paranoia run whonix on qubes.

https://tails.net

https://www.whonix.org

https://www.qubes-os.org

you might want to check out qubesOS then. I never used it gut i once saw a video about it but uts a long time ago. As far as i know they try to be very swcurity oriented.

You basically just described Tails OS

The only thing hard about privacy is if you aren’t 100% committed, you’re 0% committed. Best of luck.

Ubuntu, Fedora, Mint, etc. are indeed good enough by default. If you want more privacy, you can always add portmaster.

Ubuntu is not the privacy you want to pick. Its more like I don‘t know - debian, fedora, arch, mint, nearly everyone, but not ubuntu

Void. Void doesn't even have a syslog by default and it must be explicitly installed and enabled.

​

The large majority of distros do not have any telemetry OOTB.

Arch. Arch install from the CLI. Install what you really need.

u/itouchdennis: Ubuntu is not the privacy you want to pick. Its more like I don‘t know - debian, fedora, arch, mint, nearly everyone, but not ubuntu.

Ubuntu uses telemetry for updating packages, but otherwide Ubuntu's telemetry is "opt in", that is, you have to enable telemetry during installation. Ubuntu's extensive privacy policy describes data collected under various conditions (telemetry and otherwise) and the uses to which that data is put.

u/itouchdennis: Privacy policy is better than windows and clearer but not the best imho.

A quick summary of the key reasons you believe that Debian, Fedora, Mint (and perhaps Arch and openSUSE although you did not specifically mention those distributions) privacy policies are better than Ubuntu's would be helpful.

Are you sure that you are looking for “privacy” or more of anonymity? Or for security?

If you are looking for only privacy then you probably should use any distro that you like then opt out of their automated data collection. What remains is your part, you should not expect any distro to guard you from being identified when you use chrome while googling a product, that would expose you unless you use a lot of stuff to anonymize yourself.

A simple thing to do to avoid being exposed is to use librewolf and containerize search sessions.

That’s for only browsing, next, if you install any proprietary software like zoom, that would also expose you, but you can’t really avoid using zoom when your company is enforcing it.

There are a lot of other stuff but I think browsing would be 99+% of what would allow them to identify you.

You confuse privacy with security. Pretty much any Linux distro is privacy respecting. Just don't enably telemetry and install proprietary apps.

Stuff like Tails and Whonix is for anonymity and security, not just privacy.

What is your actual concern? Privacy is too general.

Whonix

Qubes, Tails, Whonix.

I've been using Qubes for a while and love it

Any standard linux distribution like Debian, Fedora or Arch is much much better than windows/Mac. If you're paranoid, you can go with Tails or Qubes OS although its much difficult to daily drive these.

As others have mentioned, a lot is behavior. As far as the OS, you have to weigh what you need an OS for with your goal to avoid data collection / privacy. Security & privacy are usually at odds with convenience.

Tails would give you the most privacy and least data collection but for that to be true, your behavior is very important and it wouldn't really work if you need an OS for banking, accounts that tie to your life, etc.

A balance might be something like a minimal Linux installation and running open snitch. Maybe Debian, because they are slow releases, well vetted, etc. Not a ton of cruft but all that you need for "most" things. Try to use what's already installed, don't install what you don't need.

Open snitch will alert you to all connection attempts. It is annoying, but if you take the time to set it up, it's worth it. You can disable it when needed.

Have two browsers, one for everyday use, which will mean the settings will have to be such that it works with your bank, etc and one when you want less tracking that is locked down.

You could then have Tails on a USB and use that if you wanted more anonymity, for whatever reason.

I'd suggest you make a text file with what your goals are and save it to your desktop. When you think about doing something, read it over to keep your goals in mind. It's impossible to do everything and have extreme privacy, security, anonymity, etc.

For me, I just do not like all of the collection data and aggregation by companies. They all seem to have pulled the curtain back and taken the gloves off. I can't hardly blame them as people just don't seem to care. So, I do what I can within reason and try not to contribute to the machine.

The most private? Probably Qubes OS if you’re reeeeally concerned, but I’d say any mainstream Linux distribution would be just fine for most regular users concerned about privacy.

In order of personal preference for the easiest “out of the box” experience: Fedora, Linux Mint, Ubuntu

You can also set up persistent storage in case you need to save something on a Tails USB

I think Tails like Qubes is over kill for most people

What about qubes os or parrot os with anonimity options?

What do you have in mind when you mean "safety and privacy"?

Most regular Linux distros already score very high on this list. Linux's software distribution model and system architecture is safer than Windows in many ways. For privacy, Linux does not come bundled with trackers, ads, or intrusive apps (like Candy Crush or Cortana).

Beyond this there are some distros that go even further, such as Tails. They do things like pipe the internet access through TOR and things like that. However, these are not really ideal for day to day usage, and I would not indicate them fot the average user

Tails OS

All that don't use Chromium or the Google DNS.

I used 44 Linux distro's in my 15 years. I always felt safe and secured. Currently using MX and still feel the same, safe and secured. Privacy is just common sense. Two firewalls and a network tracer should give you the privacy you need.

Hi, I'm a Fedora package maintainer, and I've been developing software and managing services on GNU/Linux systems for almost 30 years.

> So, I'm looking for recommendations for distributions that users know are 100% secure (I know any Linux distribution is more secure than Windows, but I assume there will be "the best" for most users).

I would not say that any system is "100% secure". I also tend to think that GNU/Linux systems are not significantly more secure than Windows, because the most commonly exploited component of a desktop system is the browser, and the browser is more or less the same implementation on a Windows desktop and a GNU/Linux one.

Some GNU/Linux distributions enable different security layers, like SELinux or AppArmor, but those layers are much better at confining infrastructure services that have very narrow functionality than they are at confining desktop applications, which users are accustomed to having broad access.

The biggest difference in security from distribution to distribution, in my opinion, is actually at the project level and isn't frequently discussed. It's a matter of providing a single source code platform that consistently enforces a rational security policy on all release branches (that is, package maintainers should not be able to create or delete release branches, and they must not be able to modify the history of any release branch through something like a force-push of code), and providing build infrastructure that maintainers cannot directly modify, and signing packages in trusted, protected systems so that maintainers cannot sign a package that wasn't built by the project. And of the projects whose processes I understand in detail, only Fedora really gets all of those things right.

> I'd like to use it for online banking, shopping, data and files with personal information, daily use, etc. I won't be using social media; the only social network I use is Reddit.

On this point, I want to go back to your earlier mention of "anonymity." Online anonymity can be supported by your operating system and applications, given an appropriate configuration, and Tails OS is a good choice for that. But most of anonymity relies on you to avoid doing things that could relate your activity online to you as an individual. And that includes all of the stuff you just mentioned. To remain anonymous, you can't ever log in to anything, you (probably) can't keep files from session to session (i.e. the "amnesiac" portion of Tails OS is a primary feature -- no "data" files with personal information), and absolutely no social media.

I'd recommend writing anonymity off of your list of requirements, unless you are going to dedicate a lot of time to learning to remain anonymous, and sacrifice any semblance of convenience, because it is very hard.

Also, when you post the same request to multiple subs, please post once and then use the "crosspost" link on that post to add the post to other communities. That will help readers find the primary thread and communicate in one shared location. You'll get better feedback that way.

https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxquestions/comments/1jnfinl/are_all_linux_distributions_100_open_source_which/

Not all are fully open source but with distros like Debian and Mint closed source software isn't installed by default you have to select it to install it. The FSF does provide a table of distros that comply with the open source ethos.

look at fsf recommendations. Their distros are almost stupid but some are usable. I used parabola for a while before realizing that you can just do everything parabola does on gentoo on your own. They also have a page about wht they don't recommend stuff (like debian or gentoo).  Most reasonable standard (that still avoid 100% of proprietary software) of freedom are less strict than theirs.

Security and privacy are different things, nothing is 100% secure.

I'd be very surprised if anyone on earth knows all of even just the kernel well, it's well over 30 million lines of code alone.

At some point you will need to trust someone, or likely many people in long chains.

Do you want to trust a massive corporation like IBM, Suse or Canonical? do you wanna trust a community project of volunteers like Debian? Do you wanna trust Pat?

If you want something safe, solid and well supported install Ubuntu LTS 24.04, register the free license and enable extended security support, automatic upgrades and live kernel patching. This will mean you can somewhat relax for 5-10yrs for the usecase you outline, and snaps means you will have up to date apps on top.

If you want something you could potentially wrap your head around there is stuff like Kiss, Sourcemage & Crux; but a minimal and simple infrastructure one person can maintain generally means building the system from source code and RTFM.

If you want something super sneaky there is TailsOS you can pop on a usb drive, AntiX is awesome for this if you don't need 100% ninja mode.

For what you mention Ubuntu + Firefox + Ublock Origin should have you covered.

If you want a tiny tank out of the box OpenBSD proudly claim:

>Only two remote holes in the default install, in a heck of a long time!

And Theo takes the auditing of code rather seriously.

>Are all Linux distributions 100% open source?

No.

>most reliable/transparent?

E.g. Debian: Debian Social Contract & The Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG):

>will remain 100% free

>We provide the guidelines that we use to determine if a work is free in the document entitled The Debian Free Software Guidelines. We promise that the Debian system and all its components will be free according to these guidelines.

>will never make the system require the use of a non-free component

>We will not hide problems

>priorities are our users and free software

>Free Redistribution

>Source Code

i mean really any of them, im a bit of a linux noob myself but from what I know every distro is private and shouldnt contain anything invasive

if youre just looking for a a good distro for beginners then Mint is very similar to windows and is really easy to use

Define your idea of "privacy"

basically any compared to microsoft windows.

Red star OS

(/s, just in case)

I think the applications you're using are probably going to matter more than a specific Linux distro.

Most of the common options are going to be privacy friendly..

There is stuff like tailsos, but I wouldn't call that newb friendly. I'm also assuming you're not a journalist in a war zone or Edward snowden.