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[[!meta title="Tails 3.0 will require a 64-bit processor"]]
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Tails 3.0 will require a 64-bit <span
class="definition">[[!wikipedia x86-64]]</span> compatible processor.
As opposed to older versions of Tails, it will not work on
32-bit processors.
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We have waited for years until we felt it was the right time to do this switch. Still, this was a hard decision for us to make. Today, we want to explain why we eventually made this decision, how it will affect users, and when.
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When will this transition happen?
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Our current goal is to release Tails 3.0, and stop supporting computers with a 32-bit processor, on **June 13, 2017**.
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Will Tails still work on this computer?
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Here is the quickest way to find out:
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Start Tails.
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Choose <span class="menuchoice"><span class="guimenu">Applications</span>&nbsp;▸ <span class="guisubmenu">Utilities</span>&nbsp;▸ <span class="guimenuitem">Terminal</span></span> to open a terminal.
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Execute the following command to display system information:
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uname -m
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Then, there are two possible cases:
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If you see `x86_64`, then you're good: Tails 3.0 should work fine on this computer. But the best way to be 100% sure is to try one of the test versions of Tails 3.0. One was released last November, and a new one should be published later this week, so: stay tuned!
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Else, if you see `i686`, then we have bad news: Tails 3.0 will *not* work on this computer. You now have four and a half months to find a computer with a 64-bit processor. Sorry, and good luck with that!
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Why this change?
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It's no surprise that over the last years, the number of people who use Tails on a 32-bit computer [[!tails_ticket 8183 desc="has dropped"]]: most 32-bit computers are at least ten years old, and one after the other their hardware stops working. As a result, in the beginning of 2016, [[!toggle id="stats" text="only 4%"]] of Tails users were still using a 32-bit computer.
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[[!toggleable id="stats" text="""These statistics are gathered from bug reports we have received from [[WhisperBack|doc/first_steps/whisperback#whisperback]]."""]]
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Of course, some of these computers will keep working for a while. But once the number had fallen this low, the benefits of switching Tails to 64-bit outweighed the reasons we had to keep supporting 32-bit computers.
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We had two main reasons to switch Tails to 64-bit:
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**We want Tails users to be safer**: software built for 64-bit processors can benefit from several improvements that make it harder for attackers to exploit security vulnerabilities (improved [[!wikipedia Address space layout randomization]], compulsory support for the [[!wikipedia NX bit]]).
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