Insecure verdict
I do very much disagree with your assessment and verdict on Linux Kodachi. First and foremost, there is one redditor who has pretty much tried to debunk some of its privacy claims, though maybe with some minor mistakes in the criticism.
The verdict of it to be in first place is a grave mistake on your part. Please do read the valid criticisms pointed out by other redditors, and I’ll let you judge what they say for yourselves: http://bit.ly/LXF229reddit.
You also mentioned that Kodachi “removes traces of its use from the computer during shutdown”. So does Tails! You have a responsibility in this regard – trying to talk to your audiences about privacyoriented distros is praiseworthy, but this Kodachi should not be promoted at all.
I would also like to comment on your statement concerning Qubes OS: “While it is an interesting Linux distribution, it’s more geared towards securityconscious users, rather than privacy advocates...” It’s a bit odd to say that. Despite being a security-oriented OS, it is the most recommended OS in the subreddit r/Privacy when it comes to privacy.
It would be great if you added a brief explanation of different threat models when talking about privacy distros.
Zero,viaemail
Mayank says: It would be very irresponsible of us to disregard a project just because its developer isn’t popular on Reddit. Have you heard Linus Torvalds vent? Richard Stallman? Miguel De Icaza? Nat Friedman? Just because someone is criticised on a public forum or refuses to engage with them doesn’t necessarily reflect poorly on the software.
Privacy is a simply enormous topic. The Roundup LXF222 was about the distributions themselves, and not a privacy primer, and it would have been the wrong place to explain all the nitty-gritty of the individual pieces of software or the different “threat models”. I’ll agree that I could have worded the DNS encryption statement better, but Kodachi does use VPN along with DNSCrypt. And, once again, just because /r/Privacy recommends Qubes for privacy doesn’t mean that everybody else should, too. Qubes is designed (and described by itself as “a security-oriented operating system”) for security, which it delivers via isolated virtual machines. If you are concerned about privacy, the Qubes developers themselves recommend using Whonix alongside Qubes.