Exit Zen
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For hardware compatibility issues, refer to our [[known issues|support/known_issues]].
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To learn what you can do with Tails, refer to our [[documentation|doc]].
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For questions related to Tor, see also to the [Tor support pages](https://support.torproject.org/).
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Tails [[was founded|news/celebrating_10_years]] in 2009 and [[joined forces with Tor|news/tails_tor]] in 2024.
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<h2 id="gnome">Why does Tails ship the GNOME Desktop?</h2>
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We had users ask for LXDE, XFCE, MATE, KDE, and so on, but we are not going to change desktop. According to us, the main drawback of GNOME is that it requires quite a lot of resources to work properly, but it has many advantages. The GNOME Desktop is:
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Well integrated, especially for new Linux users.
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Very well translated and documented.
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Doing relatively good regarding accessibility features.
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Actively developed.
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Well maintained in [[Debian|faq#debian]], where it is the default desktop environment.
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We invested quite some time in acquiring GNOME knowledge, and switching our desktop environment would require going through that process again.
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We are not proposing several desktop environments to choose from because we want to [[limit the amount of software included in Tails|faq#new-software]].
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Yes. Tails requires a USB stick dedicated to only running Tails.
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If it were possible to use the same USB stick with another operating system, for example to store files to use on Windows, a virus in the other operating system could corrupt your Tails.
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That's why your Tails USB stick is not recognized in Windows and why we discourage installing other live operating systems on the same USB stick.
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To store files in your Tails USB stick, use the [[Persistent Storage|doc/persistent_storage]]. To exchange files between Tails and another operating system, use a separate USB stick.
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No. Those installation methods are unsupported. They might not work at all, or worse: they might seem to work, but produce a USB stick that does *not* behave like Tails should. Follow the [[download and installation documentation|install]] instead.
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No. Upgrading whenever you get a notification from *[[Tails Upgrader|doc/upgrade]]* is enough.
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Tails provides upgrades every 4 weeks, which are thoroughly tested to make sure that no security feature or configuration gets broken.
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