Other Desktop Environments
Current Situation[edit]
The Downloadable Whonix ™ versions are available with either:
However, other desktop environments like Gnome, KDE, LXDE and so on can be manually installed.
Risks[edit]
When installing your own desktop environment such as GNOME, you're on your own. If you are going that path, start with Whonix ™ CLI, the text terminal only version of Whonix, which comes without a desktop environment installed by default, and install a desktop environment of your choice there. This is much better than starting with Whonix ™ XFCE and then uninstalling XFCE to install another desktop environment.
In theory (also tested a little bit), everything should work except Whonix ™ open-link-confirmation
(asking for confirmation, if you want to open a link you click outside the browser in Tor Browser to avoid linking) and Tor Browser won't be the default browser by default. [1]
Other desktop environments install other background services. We haven't researched the privacy implications of having these installed. For example, Gnome automatically installs GeoClue. (Whonix ™ prevents installation of that very package, but still...) Other desktop environments also ship a different selection of default applications that have not necessarily been checked for privacy. For example, Thunderbird is the only recommended mail client (as explained on the E-Mail and Encrypted Email with Thunderbird page). Installing your own desktop environment may result in installing software packages such as KMail, which is discouraged to use in context of Whonix ™, since there is no TorBirdy-like extension for KMail.
Future[edit]
Since Whonix ™ is an Open Source / Freedom Software project, Whonix ™ developers are hoping that other developers join the project and maintain other desktop environments. That someone could be you?
See Also[edit]
Footnotes[edit]
- ↑ The tb-default-browser package has not been made to work / tested with Gnome yet.
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