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[[!meta date="Wed, 01 Feb 2017 10:23:56 +0000"]]
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 		[[!pagetemplate template="news.tmpl"]]
[[!meta title="Tails 3.0 will require a 64-bit processor"]]
[[!tag announce]]
 		[[!tag announce]]
Tails 3.0 will require a 64-bit <span
class="definition">[[!wikipedia x86-64]]</span> compatible processor.
As opposed to older versions of Tails, it will not work on
32-bit processors.
We have waited for years until we felt it was the right time to do this switch. Still, this was a hard decision for us to make. Today, we want to explain why we eventually made this decision, how it will affect users, and when.
When will this transition happen?
Our current goal is to release Tails 3.0, and stop supporting computers with a 32-bit processor, on **June 13, 2017**.
Will Tails still work on this computer?
Here is the quickest way to find out:
Start Tails.
Choose <span class="menuchoice"><span class="guimenu">Applications</span>&nbsp;▸ <span class="guisubmenu">Utilities</span>&nbsp;▸ <span class="guimenuitem">Terminal</span></span> to open a terminal.
Execute the following command to display system information:
uname -m
Then, there are two possible cases:
If you see `x86_64`, then you're good: Tails 3.0 should work fine on this computer. But the best way to be 100% sure is to try one of the test versions of Tails 3.0. One was released last November, and a new one should be published later this week, so: stay tuned!
Else, if you see `i686`, then we have bad news: Tails 3.0 will *not* work on this computer. You now have four and a half months to find a computer with a 64-bit processor. Sorry, and good luck with that!
Why this change?
It's no surprise that over the last years, the number of people who use Tails on a 32-bit computer [[!tails_ticket 8183 desc="has dropped"]]: most 32-bit computers are at least ten years old, and one after the other their hardware stops working. As a result, in the beginning of 2016, [[!toggle id="stats" text="only 4%"]] of Tails users were still using a 32-bit computer.
[[!toggleable id="stats" text="""These statistics are gathered from bug reports we have received from [[WhisperBack|doc/first_steps/bug_reporting#whisperback]]."""]]