Introduction[edit]

Unless purchasing Professional Support, please do not ask very basic questions like:

How do I update Whonix ™?
How is Whonix ™ run on Windows?
How does VirtualBox work?
How do I do X on operating system Y?

First consider whether someone else has likely raised the exact same question or issue. Experience has shown that most topics have already been discussed within the Whonix ™ community and often been documented.

Before asking a question, please first use search engines, refer to the Documentation and query existing threads in the Whonix ™ forums ^[archive].

Rationale[edit]

Existing resources should be consulted for several reasons:

Whonix ™ is a technological means to anonymity, but staying safe necessitates complete behavioral change; it is a complex problem without an easy solution. The more you know, the safer you can be.
Available Documentation can provide answers to some of these questions.
- Documentation answers are generally of higher quality than information posted in a casual setting (like forums or chat).
Some questions/topics are generic in nature and out of scope for Whonix ™ -- in these cases the questioner must acquire a basic prerequisite knowledge of computing elsewhere before attempting further procedures.
The Free Support Principle Rationale and Support Request Policy Rationale apply.

Developers have made significant efforts to configure safe defaults, but operational security (opsec) is not realized by merely using a suitable platform. Staying safe requires a change of mindset and necessary skills are normally developed via trial and effort, experimentation, and general education.

Computing security and anonymity are complex subjects, which means it is improbable that volunteers can assist with every step of the journey and learning curve. Or course advanced questions about Whonix ™ are welcomed, particularly for undocumented use cases. ^[1]