Whonix – an OS focused on anonymity, privacy and security
1–10 of 68 posts
Re: Whonix – an OS focused on anonymity, privacy and security
#2The website is quite dreadful, excessively verbose in some places and totally lacking in others. It took me quite a few clicks just to learn that this is effectively virtual machines with Tor but still didn't find much at-a-glance information on what the user experience is actually like. Does anyone have any experience with this?
Re: Whonix – an OS focused on anonymity, privacy and security
#3The website is quite dreadful, excessively verbose in some places and totally lacking in others. It took me quite a few clicks just to learn that this is effectively virtual machines with Tor but still didn't find much at-a-glance information on what the user experience is actually like. Does anyone have any experience with this?
I thought you might be exaggerating a little bit, but... oh my, this website is quite terrible.
Re: Whonix – an OS focused on anonymity, privacy and security
#4The OS is focused on privacy... at the foot page there is a legend:
"By using our website, you acknowledge that you have read, understood and agreed to our Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, Terms of Service, and E-Sign Consent."
I clicked in "more information" and was directed to a long page with small print, where you have to navigate to different policies (which remain somewhat hidden if you are not careful) ...
Really?
Re: Whonix – an OS focused on anonymity, privacy and security
#5Web site looks like it's trying to sell me some shitty VPN software I don't need.
Re: Whonix – an OS focused on anonymity, privacy and security
#6The website is quite dreadful, excessively verbose in some places and totally lacking in others. It took me quite a few clicks just to learn that this is effectively virtual machines with Tor but still didn't find much at-a-glance information on what the user experience is actually like. Does anyone have any experience with this?
OP here.
I agree with you. Web design doesn't seem to be the strength of the Whonix team.. and got worse over time.
Basically, you download a Virtualbox image, import it and then have a hardened Debian VM with Xfce UI & some privacy-friendly apps like Tor browser & a crypto wallet. The internet is slow (because of Tor) & tcp-only, but sufficient for most things. Virtualbox guest extensions are included and most things work out-of-the-box.
Re: Whonix – an OS focused on anonymity, privacy and security
#7The website is quite dreadful, excessively verbose in some places and totally lacking in others. It took me quite a few clicks just to learn that this is effectively virtual machines with Tor but still didn't find much at-a-glance information on what the user experience is actually like. Does anyone have any experience with this?
You run two VMs in VirtualBox. One is a Tor gateway, the other is a workstation. Both run Whonix and are preconfigured for this. A virtual network between them is set up so that the workstation can only access the Internet via the Tor gateway VM, so it's impossible for connections to "leak" directly to the Internet without going over Tor. The gateway VM runs in the background and you run a regular browser in the workstation VM.
Re: Whonix – an OS focused on anonymity, privacy and security
#8The website is quite dreadful, excessively verbose in some places and totally lacking in others. It took me quite a few clicks just to learn that this is effectively virtual machines with Tor but still didn't find much at-a-glance information on what the user experience is actually like. Does anyone have any experience with this?
> Does anyone have any experience with this?
Only through Qubes, but I do most of my web access in a disposable (ephemeral) Whonix VM in Qubes, and it does exactly what it says on the box.
Re: Whonix – an OS focused on anonymity, privacy and security
#9The website is fine. Please don't detract from the topic. Whonix is unanimously considered the best Linux distribution in terms of privacy and security. You can also run it in Qubes OS. It's intended to run on Virtualbox for now. One VM is for network access, while the other one is connected to the previous VM for said network access, and it's the one you should use. This is to prevent any de-anonymization attacks.
Re: Whonix – an OS focused on anonymity, privacy and security
#10The website is quite dreadful, excessively verbose in some places and totally lacking in others. It took me quite a few clicks just to learn that this is effectively virtual machines with Tor but still didn't find much at-a-glance information on what the user experience is actually like. Does anyone have any experience with this?
You run two VMs in VirtualBox. One is a Tor gateway, the other is a workstation. Both run Whonix and are preconfigured for this. A virtual network between them is set up so that the workstation can only access the Internet via the Tor gateway VM, so it's impossible for connections to "leak" directly to the Internet without going over Tor. The gateway VM runs in the background and you run a regular browser in the work…
[deleted]