Today, Tails is based on Debian, Tor, and GNOME. We inherit from their work and try to contribute back in order to create a healthy ecosystem of reliable, secure, and usable tools.
[Knoppix](http://www.knoppix.org/), born in 2000 and still alive today, was the first popular live Linux distribution. Back then, it was a groundbreaking achievement to be able to start and use Linux without going through lengthy, very complex, and uncertain Linux install "parties". Knoppix was primarily designed for convenience and diagnosis.
[ELE](https://web.archive.org/web/20050422130010/http://www.northernsecurity.net:80/download/ele/), born in 2005 and based on Damn Small Linux, [Anonym.OS](https://web.archive.org/web/20060212030338/http://theory.kaos.to:80/projects.html), born in 2006 and based on OpenBSD, and [Incognito](https://web.archive.org/web/20071213084719/http://www.browseanonymouslyanywhere.com/incognito/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=41), born in 2007 and based on Gentoo, pushed the concept of live operating systems a bit further by focusing on security, online anonymity, and the use of Tor.
*Incognito* was the first live operating system to include a full set of applications preconfigured to go through Tor (browser, email client, IRC client, etc.), offer a persistent *Home* directory, and even allow hosting onion services. *Incognito* was also the first live operating system to receive an [official recognition from the Tor Project](https://blog.torproject.org/incognito-and-tor-project-sign-licensing-agreement).
On August 16 2009, *intrigeri* announced the first release of *amnesia* on the [*tor-talk* mailing list](https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-talk/2009-August/002667.html).
In March 2010, *Incognito* was declared dead and *amnesia* its "[spiritual successor](https://web.archive.org/web/20100728224716/http://www.anonymityanywhere.com:80/incognito)".Some weeks later, *amnesia* would be renamed *T(A)ILS*, *The Amnesic Incognito Live System*, to act the fusion between *amnesia* and *Incognito*.
We quickly realized that having parenthesis in our name looked very radical but was quite confusing and finally settled on *Tails* in 2011. Eight years later, we still see most people on the Internet write it TAILS though it's never been written in all caps on our website.