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.
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.
Choose <span class="menuchoice"><span class="guimenu">Applications</span> ▸ <span class="guisubmenu">Utilities</span> ▸ <span class="guimenuitem">Terminal</span></span> to open a terminal.
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!
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!
[[!toggleable id="stats" text="""These statistics are gathered from bug reports we have received from [[WhisperBack|doc/first_steps/whisperback#whisperback]]."""]]
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.
