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<h1>Releases</h1>
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<p><a
href="https://tails.boum.org/news/version_4.25/index.en.html">Tails
4.25 was released on December 2021</a>.</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>We added a utility to make a backup of the
Persistent Storage to another
Tails USB stick.</p>
<p><img alt="" class="img"
src="https://tails.boum.org/news/version_4.25/backup.png"
width="409" height="159"></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>We added a new entry called <strong>Tails
(External Hard Disk)</strong> to the GRUB boot
loader.</p>
<p><img alt="" class="img"
src="https://tails.boum.org/news/version_4.25/grub.png"
width="417" height="164"></p>
</li>
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<h1>Hiring a Project Manager</h1>
<p>We published a <a
href="https://tails.boum.org/jobs/project_manager/">job
offer for a Project Manager</a> and
reviewed the first 50 applicants.</p>
<p>We were very impressed by the quality of the applicants
and this gives us a lot
of hope for the future of the project.</p>
<p>We selected 6 applicants that we will interview in
January.</p>
<p>We are still reviewing new applications! Please pass
the word :)</p>
<h1>Automatic time synchronization</h1>
<p>We wrote a prototype to automate the synchronization of
the computer's clock
before connecting to the Tor network. (<a
href="https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/18717">#18717</a>)</p>
<p>This will help people living in Eastern Europe and Asia
connect to Tor bridges
from Tails.</p>
<p>When users decide to <a
href="https://tails.boum.org/doc/anonymous_internet/tor/index.en.html#automatic">connect
to the Tor network
automatically</a>, Tails will connect to
Fedora's captive portal detection <em>without going
through Tor</em> to automatically
correct the clock before connecting to Tor.</p>
<p>You can read more about our <a
href="https://tails.boum.org/contribute/design/Tor_enforcement/#non-tor-traffic">security
design</a>
and <a
href="https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/blueprints/-/wikis/robust_time_syncing#current-plan">current
implementation
plans</a>
or test the <a
href="https://nightly.tails.boum.org/build_Tails_ISO_18717-time-sync-before-tor/lastStable/archive/latest.img">nightly
build</a>
of our prototype.</p>
<h1>Usability tests of first-time use</h1>
<p>We did some usability tests of our installation
instructions. We recruited 5
activists with interest in privacy technologies and
observed them while they
downloaded, installed, and started Tails for the first
time. We hadn't tested
this entire flow since 2015 and so many things happened
since then.</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>3 of them had a pretty good installation experience
of 10-20 minutes,
download excluded. This process became much easier
since 2015 thanks to the
distribution of USB images instead of ISO images.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>2 of them went a very bad route and took more than
1 hour to install Tails
despite us rescuing them along the way. The good
news is that we could help
these people with only changes to the website.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>You can see the detailed findings and the 19 GitLab
issues that we created from
these usability tests in this <a
href="https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/ux/-/raw/master/first-time/rainbow_table.fods?inline=false">rainbow
table</a>
or read a more <a
href="https://lists.autistici.org/message/20211217.014522.68cdc460.en.html">detailed
report</a>. (<a
href="https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/18074">#18074</a>)</p>
<p>We also published our <a
href="https://tails.boum.org/contribute/how/user_experience/research/">policy
for the retention of the user research
data</a> gathered during such activities.</p>
<h1>Metrics</h1>
<ul>
<li>
<p>The Russian translation of our <a
href="https://tails.boum.org/doc/anonymous_internet/tor/index.en.html">documentation
about connecting to the Tor
network</a> was the top growing page on our
website,
according to Google Search.</p>
<p>This happened while <a
href="https://ooni.org/post/2021-russia-blocks-tor/">Russia
started blocking
Tor</a> in December.</p>
<p>We are very proud to have released the Russian
translation of our entire user
documentation in October and released the <a
href="https://tails.boum.org/news/version_4.20/index.en.html"><em>Tor
Connection</em> assistant in
July</a> to make it easier for people to
circumvent this kind
of censorship.</p>
<p>We estimate that 4 times more people are using
bridges from Tails since the
release of <em>Tor Connection</em>, from the <em>WhisperBack</em>
reports that we receive
from users.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Tails has been started more than 752 953 times this
month. This makes
24 289 boots a day on average.</p>
</li>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
sajolida
Tails — <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://tails.boum.org/">https://tails.boum.org/</a>
UX · Fundraising · Technical Writing</pre>
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