‘Septor 2021’ Is Out and It Has Shifted to Debian Testing

• Privacy-minded Linux distribution ‘Septor’ abandons Debian stable and jumps to the “testing” branch.
• Septor is offering an up to date option for those who look to browser the web anonymously.

The Debian-based anonymity-focused Linux distribution ‘Septor’ is among the first OSes to come out this year, and it brings several things to make it worth a “test drive”. Most notably, ‘Septor 2021’ is abandoning Debian stable that was using as a basis thus far and is now jumping to the Debian testing branch. What this means from a practical perspective is that users will get a lot more up to date packages. Debian stable is known for being rock-solid, but some of its components are ridiculously outdated.

In Septor 2021, you will find the following out of the box:

• Linux Kernel 5.9.0-5
• Plasma 5.20.4
• KDE Applications 20.12
• Tor Browser 10.0.7, based on Firefox 78.6 ESR
• Thunderbird, HexChat, qTox IM, QuiteRSS, OnionShare
• Synaptic, DEBiTool
• Gufw, Konsole, Ark, Sweeper, ISO Image Writer, Kcalc, KGpg, Kleopatra, Mat2, KWallet, zuluCrypt
• LibreOffice, Kontact, КOrganizer, Okular, Kwrite, Kate, Eqonomize
• GIMP, Gwenview, VLC, K3b, Guvcview, VokoscreenNG

All in all, this is an operating system that aims to provide high levels of internet anonymity and has several pre-configurations to help users achieve that. It uses the “Privoxy” system, which is a privacy-enhancing proxy that serves as an anonymizing intermediary through which all requests pass. Additionally, it uses the Tor network to modify web page data and HTTP headers before the page is rendered by the browser, so there’s nothing relevant to the user’s internet activities leaking out. OnionShare is there to help with file sharing, and Ricochet is present for anonymous instant messaging.

The desktop environment that’s used by Septor is the versatile and feature-rich KDE Plasma, while the distro’s developers have made several tweaks to bring it to the form they believe is best for the focus of their operating system. Finally, if you’re from Serbia, you will find specific localization options as the creators of Septor are based in the Balkan country.

Systems like Septor that incorporate the Tor network in them are precious for those who want to easily browse the web without having to fiddle with special configurations each time. The most popular of these systems is Tails, but it’s always good to have more options.