[Tails-testers] [Tails News] Our achievements in 2022

# [Our achievements in
2022](https://tails.boum.org/news/achievements_in_2022/index.en.html)

**If a tool is hard to use, it is less secure.**

When digital security tools are too complicated to use, people make mistakes
that compromise their security or simply give up and fall back on more
dangerous practices.

Because journalists and whistleblowers use Tails to expose abuse of power and
activists use Tails to defend human rights and our planet, the more people use
Tails, the better we are all protected.

In 2022, we focused on making it easier to install Tails and improving many
existing features, instead of adding new features. Here are some highlights.

Our work is only possible thanks to the donations of our many supporters. In
2020-2022, [donations from passionate people like
you](https://tails.boum.org/donate/index.en.html) represented 76% of our
income. This is the best proof of the value of our work and our biggest
motivation.

Thanks!

# Better tools

## _Persistent Storage_

The biggest change is still to come as we will release a complete redesign of
the Persistent Storage in Tails 5.8 (December 20). You can already test the
new Persistent Storage in [Tails
5.8~beta1](https://tails.boum.org/news/test_5.8-beta1/).

The Persistent Storage hadn't changed much since its first release in 2012
because the code was hard to modify and improve. But, we learned from users
that the Persistent Storage could do a lot more for you if it had more
features and was easier to use.

The new Persistent Storage won't require restarting after creating it or each
time you activate a new feature.

It will also make it easier for us to persist more settings in the future.

And finally, it looks so much better!



## PGP tools

We know that lots of our users depend on PGP tools to protect their
communications. But, we also know that PGP tools are notoriously hard to use.

We made 2 big changes to PGP tools in Tails:

* We added [_Kleopatra_](https://tails.boum.org/doc/encryption_and_privacy/kleopatra/index.en.html), a swiss army knife for all things PGP.

_Kleopatra_ replaced the _OpenPGP Applet_ and the _Password and Keys_ utility,
also known as _Seahorse_ , which were not actively developed anymore and had
many issues.


* We updated _Thunderbird_ to 102, which includes major usability improvements to the OpenPGP feature.

When composing an email, you can now see whether it will be encrypted or not.
If encryption is impossible, a key assistant helps you solve key issues.

![Thunderbird composer

window with encryption turned on and notification about a missing key and how

to resolve the
issue.](https://tails.boum.org/news/version_5.5/thunderbird_102.png)

## _Tor Connection_ assistant

We conducted usability tests of the _Tor Connection_ assistant in France and
Brazil with people who were new to Tails to identify issues in complicated
cases: when connecting to Tor is blocked by censorship or a captive portal.

We fixed [28 usability
issues](https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/?sort=closed_desc&state=closed&label_name%5B%5D=C%3ATor%20Connection&first_page_size=20)
identified during these tests. For example:

* The _Tor Connection_ assistant now automatically fixes the computer clock if you choose to connect to Tor automatically. This makes it much easier for people in Asia to circumvent censorship.

* We made it easier to open the _Unsafe Browser_ to sign in to a network. This makes it much easier to use Tails on public networks in airports, libraries, and so on.

* In Tails 5.8 (December 20), you will be able to scan a QR code from your phone to enter a Tor bridge:


## _Unsafe Browser_ and Wayland

Tails 5.8 will also make the _Unsafe Browser_ both safer and easier to use by
migrating it to the Wayland display technology.

Wayland brings more security in-depth to Tails by making it harder for a
compromised application in Tails to compromise or misuse another application.

Wayland also fixes other features that were not working yet in the _Unsafe
Browser_ :

* Sound
* Uploads and downloads
* Alternative input methods for Chinese and other non-Latin languages
* Accessibility features like the screen reader and virtual keyboard

## Metadata cleaning

We added _Metadata Cleaner_ , a new tool to clean metadata from your files.


When we switched to _MAT_ 0.8.0 in Tails 4.0, _MAT_ lost its graphical
interface and was only accessible from the contextual menu of the _Files_
browser. It became especially hard for new users to learn how to clean their
files. _Metadata Cleaner_ fixes this by providing a simple and easily
discoverable graphic interface to remove metadata.

_Metadata Cleaner_ works on the same file formats and is as secure as _MAT_
because _Metadata Cleaner_ also uses _MAT_ in the background to do the actual
cleaning.

## Backups

We added a utility to make a backup of the Persistent Storage to another Tails
USB stick.


It's pretty basic. We still want to do something better in
[#7049](https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/7049), but we
didn't want to wait more because we know that backups are a big issue for our
users.

# Easier installation

## Installation instructions

During usability tests in Mexico and Brazil, we realized that our installation
process was already pretty easy to follow, but that some people were getting
lost while navigating between the different pages.

We simplified our instructions by making them into a [single
page](https://tails.boum.org/install/windows/index.en.html).

We added animations and more exciting visuals.

Finally, we fixed no less than [30 other smaller usability
issues](https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/?sort=closed_desc&state=closed&label_name%5B%5D=C%3AInstallation&first_page_size=20)
in the instructions!

## Tails.net and more reliable downloads

After 13 years of relying on the domain name of our historical hosting
provider, _boum.org_ , we finally acquired a simple, beautiful, and
trustworthy domain name of our own:

🎉 ✨ **_tails.net_** ✨ 🎉

It will take us some time to migrate all our services to this new name.

As a start, we deployed <https://download.tails.net/>. This new service uses
[Mirrorbits](https://github.com/etix/mirrorbits), a more reliable way of
redirecting downloads to one of our mirrors. It prevents many broken downloads
and automates some tedious work.

# Team life

## New team members

Our team grew and welcomed 2 new full-time workers:

* [@disoj](https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/disoj) joined us as our Project Manager in April.

She will help our team grow, mature, and ultimately serve our users better.
It's the first time that we hired for a managerial position, so it's a very
big and positive change.

* [@groente](https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/groente), a long-term Sysadmin consultant, joined us full-time in July.

He will help us deploy better infrastructure to make our work more efficient
while keeping all our machines (and thus your Tails) secure.

## Organizational redesign

Behind the curtains, Tails operates as a small team that values transparency,
autonomy, and horizontal decision-making. We have always worked fully remotely
and now have team members in 10 different countries.

All this can be challening sometimes :)

This year, we redesigned, clarified, and documented our internal organizing a
lot. In particular, it is now clearer who is responsible, and legitimate, to
make which decisions. This will make Tails a more pleasant and efficient
working place, so we can focus more of our energy on improving our tools.

# We never let you down!

To always keep you safe, a significant part of our work consists in releasing
Tails every 4 weeks, updating to new version of _Tor Browser_ and the _Tor_
client, migrating to new technologies in GNOME or Debian, etc.

We released:

* 14 releases, never skipping a single update of _Tor Browser_.

* Tails 5.0 based on Debian Bullseye, with important technical migrations.

* 2 emerency releases to fix critical vulnerabilities in the _Tor_ client and the _Linux_ kernel.

All this work has been made possible by donations from users like you. If you
like these changes and want more, donate now to fund our work in 2023.

[Donate](https://tails.boum.org/donate/index.en.html)

URL: <https://tails.boum.org/news/achievements_in_2022/index.en.html>

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