Secure and anonymous on the Internet with Heads
Keep the Secret

Several live distributions support anonymous surfing on the Internet. Heads is a leading alternative that lets you surf secretly on older hardware.
The Internet offers unimagined opportunities, but equally unimaginable dangers. Although Linux offers effective protection against malware, spying, advertising, and trackers through a variety of free tools and technologies, the effort involved in configuring these tools is considerable and requires in-depth expertise to properly plug loopholes. Heads [1] is a still-young live distribution from the US that lets users surf safely without time-consuming and laborious installation and configuration work.
Heads is based on Devuan "Beowulf." Devuan is a Debian fork that still relies on the older SysVinit initialization process instead of systemd [2]. The dependency-based OpenRC init system [3] is also used in heads. In contrast to established distributions for anonymous surfing on the net, such as Tails, heads relies exclusively on free software and a hardened kernel: Unlike Tails, the developers have not integrated proprietary applications or binary blobs into the system. In addition, they include the grsecurity patches [4] in the kernel to prevent potential vulnerabilities such as zero-day exploits.
Unlike most distributions, heads does not have a fixed release plan. New versions are released in a manner that is true to the Debian motto: "It's done when it's done." The goal is not to meet a predefined timetable but to ensure superior software quality. In addition, heads is available in a variant for 64-bit hardware, as well as in a variant for older 32-bit systems. With the help of heads, you can rejuvenate an older computer system as a secure web browsing station.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
openSUSE Joins End of 10
openSUSE has decided to not only join the End of 10 movement but it also will no longer support the Deepin Desktop Environment.
-
New Version of Flatpak Released
Flatpak 1.16.1 is now available as the latest, stable version with various improvements.
-
IBM Announces Powerhouse Linux Server
IBM has unleashed a seriously powerful Linux server with the LinuxONE Emperor 5.
-
Plasma Ends LTS Releases
The KDE Plasma development team is doing away with the LTS releases for a good reason.
-
Arch Linux Available for Windows Subsystem for Linux
If you've ever wanted to use a rolling release distribution with WSL, now's your chance.
-
System76 Releases COSMIC Alpha 7
With scores of bug fixes and a really cool workspaces feature, COSMIC is looking to soon migrate from alpha to beta.
-
OpenMandriva Lx 6.0 Available for Installation
The latest release of OpenMandriva has arrived with a new kernel, an updated Plasma desktop, and a server edition.
-
TrueNAS 25.04 Arrives with Thousands of Changes
One of the most popular Linux-based NAS solutions has rolled out the latest edition, based on Ubuntu 25.04.
-
Fedora 42 Available with Two New Spins
The latest release from the Fedora Project includes the usual updates, a new kernel, an official KDE Plasma spin, and a new System76 spin.
-
So Long, ArcoLinux
The ArcoLinux distribution is the latest Linux distribution to shut down.