Whonix Short Documentation - Suggested FINAL

  1. An Introduction to Whonix
    a. What is Whonix
    b. How is Whonix different from other Anonymity Distributions
  2. Installation and Updating (Upgrading)
    a. Choose a Virtualization Platform
    • Hardware Requirements
    • Host Recommendations
      b. Download, verify
      c. Install
  3. First Steps in Whonix
    a. Launch, connect
    • censored? click link to main docs
      b. Update
      c. Browse the Web
      d. Shutdown
  4. Common Tasks
    a. Pre-Installed Applications
    b. Need something else? click link
  5. Preserving Anonymity and Privacy
    a. What to do & What not to do
  6. Where to go from here (links)
    a. multiple browsers/gateways/workstations
    b. tunnels
    c. other applications
    d. hardened configurations
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Good day,

Have (finally) had time to include this, the newest version for the homepage may be found here: GitHub - EgoBits1/Whonix-Website

Now it comes to writing the content which shall make up the short documentation.

Have a nice day,

Ego

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The code as per git commit 1d020691398b71aa53908ef98b6c1e61d20d037e looks nice and clean as far as I can tell. Nicely organized.

Curious, do you hand write it or use some kind of tools?

How can one preview the website locally? Install lighttpd, and then?

Got a /var/www/Whonix-Website folder now. Then visiting 127.0.0.1/Whonix-Website/index.html. It’s just text without any styles. What I am doing wrong?

Good day,

I “handwrite” it with Emacs.

Because of the way, folders in html work, the CSS folder (so the folder which contains the information for the styling, etc) needs to be at the highest level of your webserver, in your case thus in /var/www/. I personally thus simply put the contents of Whonix-Website into htdocs directly.

Have a nice day,

Ego

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A minor thing: The Whonix website www links should always contain the www. Example:
Whonix ™ for Windows, macOS, Linux inside VirtualBoxWhonix ™ for Windows, macOS, Linux inside VirtualBox
(Better for SEO to have just one version.)

Can you please make the newsletter box?
[e-mail (input box)] [subscribe (button)] [unsubscribe (button)]
(As discussed in https://forums.whonix.org/t/whonix-newsletter.)

Good day,

Changed accordingly.

Done. Forgot completley about the unsubscribe button.

Have a nice day,

Ego

Edit: Just noticed I forgot to adjust the page for the additional button, will fix that too.

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Good day,

Has been adjusted accordingly.

Have a nice day,

Ego

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Reviewed the latest changes just now. Looks good. I find that way to provide newsletter subscribe / unsubscribe perfect. :slight_smile:

Is this a matter of copy and paste of existing materials or more involved?

Good day,

Well, looking at the titles @torjunkie suggested, I’d say most things won’t be easy to “copy&paste”, as the recommended titles are very specific.

Have a nice day,

Ego

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I had originally envisioned writing the whole thing from scratch (pulling from the wiki). @torjunkie provided a lot of material in his guide. So much of this has become a matter of aggregation and filtering of the most important points.

I. An Introduction to Whonix

Copy / paste from @torjunkie and blog post.

II. Installation and Updating (Upgrading)
    Choose a Virtualization Platform\
    Hardware Requirements
    Host Recommendations

The actual install steps can be pulled from @torjunkie’s guide. The decision process needs to be written and is a critical part of this guide for the new user. I am not entirely sure how to go about this. Very difficult (in a short amount of text) to explain host & hypervisor considerations. (ie what is the difference between Windows + Virtualbox vs Debian + KVM vs Qubes and which use cases demand which)

III. First Steps in Whonix
IV. Common Tasks
VI. Where to go from here (links)

Relatively short and straightforward. Mainly links to wiki.

V. Preserving Anonymity and Privacy

Base on #DoNot and #Warnings.

2 Likes

As discussed in a previous thread, it’s impossible to present VirtualBox
vs KVM for Linux without totally confusing users. So it wasn’t added to
whonix.org’s new website.

Yes, I think that’s right. It’s been so long I’m forgetting. So quick-start will be like Whonix trial version. You can install on any existing system. Quick-start will set up a system that will protect your privacy most of the time. If you would like to harden further, here are additional steps you can take…

More and more, I think Quick-start guide is really a guide to the Wiki. The wiki is completely inaccessible to new users. The Quick-start guide will link to the most important wiki pages in a sensible order while providing context. It should be readable without clicking any links but give people room to grow if they’re interested.

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quick start should be readable without clicking any links but give people room to grow if they’re interested.

Maybe that’s worth saying during quick start to set exceptions.

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Section 1a What is Whonix can probably just use the Tor Project blog post. Nice post BTW - perhaps turn it into a blog post Patrick (?):

What is Whonix?

Whonix is a privacy ecosystem that utilizes compartmentalization to provide a private, leak-resistant environment for many desktop computing activities. Whonix helps users use their favorite desktop applications anonymously. A web browser, IRC client, word processor, and more come pre-installed with safe defaults, and users can safely install custom applications and personalize their desktops with Whonix.

Whonix is designed to run inside a VM and to be paired with Tor. Whonix is composed of two or more virtual machines that run on top of an existing operating system. The primary purpose of this design is to isolate the critical Tor software from the risk-laden environments that often host user-applications, such as email clients and web browsers.

Whonix consists of two parts: the first part solely runs Tor and acts as a gateway for a user’s Internet traffic, called Whonix-Gateway. The other, called Whonix-Workstation, is for a user’s work and is located on a completely isolated network. Even if the user’s workstation is compromised with root privileges, it cannot easily reveal IP addresses or leak DNS requests or bypass Tor, because it has neither full knowledge nor control over where and how its traffic is routed. This is security by isolation, and it averts many threats posed by malware, misbehaving applications, and user error.

One of Whonix’s core strengths is its flexibility. Whonix can run on Linux, MacOS, or Windows. It can torrify nearly any application’s traffic running on nearly any operating system, and it doesn’t depend on the application’s cooperation. It can even isolate a server behind a Tor Hidden Service running on a separate OS. It can route traffic over VPNs, SSH tunnels, SOCKS proxies, and major anonymity networks, giving users flexibility in their system setups.

Whonix was originally built around compatibility-focused Virtualbox, then time-tested KVM was added as an option. Now Whonix is shipped-by-default with the advanced, security-focused virtualization platform QubesOS. Whonix even supports Qubes’ DisposableVMs.

Whonix has a safe default configuration that includes a restrictive firewall, privacy-enhanced settings for Debian, AppArmor profiles, and pre-configured and stream isolated applications.

Tor Project’s Quick Start Guide can serve as an inspiration for this project in terms of what level of user it is being pitched at, and the level of detail required:

https://tb-manual.torproject.org/windows/en-US/

Short, sweet and many links to the wiki as entr0py noted. Plus link wiki pics on occasion as per Tor user manual style - breaks up monotony of the text and makes it clear for the newbie what they are doing.