Software Alternatives & Reviews

Tails VS PureOS

Compare Tails VS PureOS and see what are their differences

Tails logo Tails

Tails is a Debian based live CD/USB with the goal of providing complete Internet anonymity for the...

PureOS logo PureOS

A user friendly, secure and freedom respecting OS for your daily usage
  • Tails Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-01-25
  • PureOS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-03-20

Tails videos

Tails OS Installation And Review - Access The Deep Web/Dark Net

More videos:

  • Review - Tails Reviews Sonic The Hedgehog Movie | Post Credits Scene Reaction
  • Review - 5 Reasons to Use Tails | Privacy Linux

PureOS videos

PureOS 8.0 - Based on Debian 10 Buster and Using GNOME 3.30 as Default Desktop Environment

More videos:

  • Review - Is PureOS Really a Secure and Private OS?

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Tails and PureOS)
Linux
93 93%
7% 7
Mobile OS
0 0%
100% 100
Operating Systems
82 82%
18% 18
Mobile SDK
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Tails and PureOS

Tails Reviews

Best Linux distro for privacy and security of 2024
All connections are routed through the anonymity network Tor, which conceals your location. The applications in Tails have also been carefully selected to enhance your privacy – for example, there’s KeePassX - which, while not the best password manager, is still pretty good - and Paperkey, a command line tool used to export OpenPGP secret keys to print on paper. There are...
Top 5 Secure Operating Systems for Privacy and Anonymity
Tails has the option for persistent storage which can improve usability, albeit at the cost of some anonymity. Although it enables saving files across sessions, it creates a trace of your activities, which contradicts Tails' amnesic feature. However, you still preserve a high degree of privacy due to robust encryption. This is made possible due to how the persistent data is...
The 5 Best Privacy-Focused Operating Systems
Tails, short for "The Amnesic Incognito Live System," is a privacy-focused portable Linux distribution, designed with anonymity and security in mind. What makes Tails stand out is its focus on leaving no digital trace. It operates as a live OS, meaning you can run it directly from a USB stick or DVD without leaving any footprint on the host system.
Avoid The Hack: 11 Best Privacy Friendly Operating Systems (Desktops)
TAILS is a live operating system focusing on anonymity in addition to user privacy; TAILS effectively disappears, wiping data when you shut down the system.
Best Secure Linux Distros for Enhanced Privacy & Security
Tails uses the Tor network, a network heralded for its privacy and anonymity benefits, to keep users safe online. All connections run through this network - concealing users’ location and other private information. Tails comes with a secure browser, a secure email client and other secure Internet tools. Tails is the most well-known privacy-focused distro, and a popular...

PureOS Reviews

The 10 Best Immutable Linux Distributions in 2024
Why it’s on the list: PureOS offers a great balance of immutability and usability. While not fully immutable, it incorporates many immutable principles, particularly in handling software updates and system stability.
The 5 Best Privacy-Focused Operating Systems
PureOS is a privacy-focused Linux distribution developed by Purism, a company committed to user privacy and open-source software. It comes pre-installed on Purism's Librem laptops and is designed to provide a secure and privacy-conscious computing environment.
Open Source Mobile OS Alternatives To Android
It’s more of a Linux-based smartphone rather than a Linux-based smartphone OS, but I believe that the convergent PureOS should be able to run on other devices with some tweaks.
Source: itsfoss.com
Top 15 Best Security-Centric Linux Distributions of 2020
PureOS is a user-friendly Debian-based distribution built with a focus on user privacy and security by Purism – the company behind Liberem computers and smartphones.
Source: www.tecmint.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Tails seems to be a lot more popular than PureOS. While we know about 385 links to Tails, we've tracked only 13 mentions of PureOS. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Tails mentions (385)

  • Ten years from Snowden revelations – what's next for Tor and privacy online?
    I’m not sure about the Tor project, but the closely-related Tails project (which is excellent, BTW) seems to be uncomfortably adjacent to far-left anarchist groups. Their website, https://tails.boum.org, is hosted by one such group, and on it they prominently link to another anarchist “collective” called RiseUp. Why are we okay with this kind of implicit endorsement of violence-adjacent groups? It should be just... - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • very strange
    I noticed that the website url https://tails.boum.org/ was changed to https://tails.net/. Does anyone know why? Source: 7 months ago
  • My Mother Found Out I was Installing Linux...
    If you pop this onto a USB you can leave a beautiful Windows installation on your computer unfettled with: https://tails.boum.org/. Source: 10 months ago
  • How does this work in Proton?! I was told it's impossible...
    If you want to factor out your host machine entirely whilst surfing the web, have a look at https://tails.boum.org/ . Source: 10 months ago
  • Is it possible for a skilled hacker or government to remotely access my computer?
    Tails is a security-focused Linux distro that (by default) only runs as a live-USB and is not meant to be used as a traditional daily-driver. As you've probably understood by now, it's a 'limited' system for the sake of security and privacy. At least it's assuring to have a far better protected distro than what distros like Arch/Debian/Fedora offer by default. Source: 11 months ago
View more

PureOS mentions (13)

  • Laptops with Linux
    Librem 14 by Purism, can't recall the specifics for this one; sorry*. I do remember that we owe PureOS to them. Source: about 1 year ago
  • I am losing my mind while protecting my online privacy
    Another option is PureOS, and you might even consider buying privacy-oriented hardware, such as the Libram product line of computers, laptops, smartphones from Purism, which is just one among many manufacturers in this market. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Are there any useable Linux phone Os besides Ubuntu Touch
    There's ClearOS https://www.clearos.com/products/clearos-editions/clearos-mobile and PureOS https://pureos.net/ which the Librem 5 uses. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • GNOME is on which tablets or phones?
    Check following link. You can order gnome phone here. Https://pureos.net/. Source: over 2 years ago
  • How to keep Debian FSF "approved"?
    If you can actually use a FSF distribution (you don’t need proprietary drivers) you can use PureOS from Purism. It is based on Debian and up streams all their work back to it. https://pureos.net/. Source: over 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Tails and PureOS, you can also consider the following products

Linux Mint - Linux Mint is one of the most popular desktop Linux distributions and used by millions of people.

Android - Android is an open source mobile operating system initially released by Google in 2008 and has since become of the most widely used operating systems on any platform.

Ubuntu - Ubuntu is a Debian Linux-based open source operating system for desktop computers.

LineageOS - Operating system for smartphones and tablet computers, based on the Android

Arch Linux - You've reached the website for Arch Linux, a lightweight and flexible Linux® distribution that tries to Keep It Simple. Currently we have official packages optimized for the x86-64 architecture.

GrapheneOS - GrapheneOS is an open source privacy and security focused mobile OS with Android app compatibility.