privacyguides.org/_includes/sections/operating-systems.html

<h1 id="os" class="anchor"><a href="#os"><i class="fas fa-link anchor-icon"></i></a> PC Operating Systems</h1>

<div class="alert alert-warning" role="alert">
  <strong>If you are currently using a operating system like Windows 10, you should pick an alternative here.</strong>
</div>

{% include cardv2.html
title="Qubes OS"
image="/assets/img/tools/Qubes-OS.png"
description='Qubes is an open-source operating system designed to provide strong security for desktop computing. Qubes is based on Xen, the X Window System, and Linux, and can run most Linux applications and utilize most of the Linux drivers.'
badges="info:Xen"
labels="warning:contrib:This software may depend on or recommend non-free software."
website="https://www.qubes-os.org/"
github="https://github.com/QubesOS"
tor="http://qubesosfasa4zl44o4tws22di6kepyzfeqv3tg4e3ztknltfxqrymdad.onion/"
%}

{% include cardv2.html
title="Fedora Workstation"
image="/assets/img/tools/Fedora.png"
description='Fedora is a Linux distribution developed by the Fedora Project and sponsored by Red Hat. Fedora Workstation is a secure, reliable, and user-friendly edition developed for desktops and laptops, using GNOME as the default desktop environment.'
badges="info:GNU/Linux"
labels="warning:contrib:This software may depend on or recommend non-free software."
website="https://getfedora.org/"
git="https://src.fedoraproject.org/"
%}

{% include cardv2.html
title="Debian"
image="/assets/img/tools/Debian.png"
description='Debian is a Unix-like computer operating system and a Linux distribution that is composed entirely of free and open-source software, most of which is under the GNU General Public License, and packaged by a group of individuals known as the Debian project.'
badges="info:GNU/Linux"
website="https://www.debian.org/"
tor="http://sejnfjrq6szgca7v.onion"
gitlab="https://salsa.debian.org/qa/debsources"
%}

<h3>Worth Mentioning</h3>

<ul>
  <li><a href="https://www.openbsd.org/">OpenBSD</a> <span class="badge badge-info">BSD</span> - A project that produces a free, multi-platform 4.4BSD-based UNIX-like operating system. Emphasizes portability, standardization, correctness, proactive security and integrated cryptography.</li>
  <li><a href="https://www.archlinux.org/">Arch Linux</a> <span class="badge badge-info">GNU/Linux</span> <span class="badge badge-warning" data-toggle="tooltip" title="This software may depend on or recommend non-free software.">contrib <i class="far fa-question-circle"></i></span> - A simple, lightweight Linux distribution. It is composed predominantly of free and open-source software, and supports community involvement. <a href="https://www.parabola.nu/">Parabola</a> is a
    completely open source version of Arch Linux.</li>
  <li><a href="https://trisquel.info/">Trisquel</a> <span class="badge badge-info">GNU/Linux</span> - Derived from Ubuntu, this project aims for a fully free software system without proprietary software or firmware and uses Linux-libre, a version of the Linux kernel with the non-free code (binary blobs) removed.</li>
  <li><a href="https://www.whonix.org/">Whonix</a> <span class="badge badge-info">GNU/Linux</span> - A Debian-based security-focused Linux distribution. It aims to provide privacy, security and anonymity on the internet. The operating system consists of two virtual machines, a "Workstation"
    and a Tor "Gateway". All communication are forced through the Tor network to accomplish this.</li>
</ul>

<h3>Warning</h3>

<ul>
  <li><a href="#win10"><i class="fas fa-link"></i> Don't use Windows 10 - It's a privacy nightmare</a></li>
</ul>

<h4 id="cpuvulns">Remember to check CPU vulnerability mitigations</h4>

<p><em><a href="https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4073757/protect-windows-devices-from-speculative-execution-side-channel-attack">This also affects Windows 10</a>, but it doesn't expose this information or mitigation instructions as easily. MacOS users check <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210108">How to enable full mitigation for Microarchitectural Data Sampling (MDS) vulnerabilities on Apple Support</a>.</em></p>

<p>When running a enough recent Linux kernel, you can check the CPU vulnerabilities it detects by <code>tail -n +1 /sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/*</code>. By using <code>tail -n +1</code> instead of <code>cat</code>, the file names are also visible.</p>

<p>
    In case you have an Intel CPU, you may notice "SMT vulnerable" display after running the <code>tail</code> command. To mitigate this, disable <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyper-threading">hyper-threading</a> from the UEFI/BIOS. You can also take the following mitigation steps below if your system/distribution uses GRUB and supports <code>/etc/default/grub.d/</code>:
</p>

<ol>
  <li><code>sudo mkdir /etc/default/grub.d/</code> to create a directory for additional grub configuration</li>
  <li><code>echo GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="$GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT l1tf=full,force mds=full,nosmt mitigations=auto,nosmt nosmt=force" | sudo tee /etc/default/grub.d/mitigations.cfg</code> to create a new grub config file source with the echoed content</li>
  <li><code>sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg</code> to generate a new grub config file including these new kernel boot flags</li>
  <li><code>sudo reboot</code> to reboot</li>
  <li>after the reboot, check <code>tail -n +1 /sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/*</code> again to see that everything referring to SMT now says "SMT disabled."</li>
</ol>

<h5>Further reading</h5>

<ul>
  <li><a href="https://cpu.fail/">CPU.fail</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/hw-vuln/">Hardware vulnerabilities index on The Linux kernel user's and administrator's guide</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/install-update-intel-microcode-firmware-linux/">How to install/update CPU microcode firmware on Linux</a> - Regardless of your CPU manufacturer, you should always install the latest microcode packages available to be protected from CPU vulnerabilities, especially if the command above reports <strong>no microcode</strong> in its output.</li>
  <li><a href="https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/hw-vuln/mds.html">MDS - Microarchitectural Data Sampling on The Linux kernel user's and administrator's guide</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://mdsattacks.com/">RIDL and Fallout: MDS attacks on mdsattacks.com</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simultaneous_multithreading">Simultaneous multithreading on Wikipedia</a></li>
</ul>