Private and open-source alternatives to macOS
15 desktop operating systems rated against the same public privacy criteria as macOS (Mac OS), with our picks first.
Why look for an alternative?
- Open source: no. Closed source. Apple publishes the source of Darwin and some components, but most of macOS is proprietary.
- No trackers or telemetry: partial. No third-party trackers in the app, and sharing device analytics with Apple is opt-in. Apple web pages load Apple's own analytics (ac-analytics, sent to metrics.apple.com) by default.
- No ads or data sales: partial. Funded by hardware sales. Apple's ad platform shows ads in the App Store, News and Stocks apps; personalized ads can be turned off and Apple does not sell personal data.
- Independent audit: partial. Common Criteria evaluations by independent labs are published as certification and validation reports, but no full security audit report is public.
The alternatives
FreeBSD Grade A
A Unix-like operating system descended from BSD, developed as a complete system of kernel and userland, with ZFS, jails and the bhyve hypervisor.
Based in the United States (Five Eyes). FreeBSD scores 100 out of 100 (grade A) on the desktop operating systems criteria. It meets 4 of 4 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales and independent audit.
Tails Grade A
A portable live operating system that starts from a USB stick, routes all connections through Tor and leaves no trace on the computer unless Persistent Storage is used.
Based in the United States (Five Eyes). Tails scores 100 out of 100 (grade A) on the desktop operating systems criteria. It meets 4 of 4 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales and independent audit.
Alpine Linux Grade B
Alpine is a security-oriented, lightweight distro based on musl libc and busybox. It compiles all user-space binaries as position-independent executables with stack-smashing protection.
Alpine Linux scores 80 out of 100 (grade B) on the desktop operating systems criteria. It meets 3 of 4 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry and no ads or data sales.
Arch Linux Grade B
A minimal, rolling-release Linux distribution for x86-64 that users configure themselves, using the pacman package manager and the community Arch User Repository.
Arch Linux scores 80 out of 100 (grade B) on the desktop operating systems criteria. It meets 3 of 4 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry and no ads or data sales.
Debian Grade B
A community-developed Linux distribution made entirely of free software, known for stable releases and a large package archive, and the base of many other distributions.
Debian scores 80 out of 100 (grade B) on the desktop operating systems criteria. It meets 3 of 4 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry and no ads or data sales.
elementary OS Grade B
An Ubuntu-based Linux distribution with its own Pantheon desktop and apps, and AppCenter, a store for pay-what-you-want apps and Flatpaks.
Based in the United States (Five Eyes). elementary OS scores 80 out of 100 (grade B) on the desktop operating systems criteria. It meets 3 of 4 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry and no ads or data sales.
NixOS Grade B
A Linux distribution built on the Nix package manager, where the whole system is configured declaratively and upgrades can be rolled back.
Based in the Netherlands (Nine Eyes). NixOS scores 80 out of 100 (grade B) on the desktop operating systems criteria. It meets 3 of 4 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry and no ads or data sales.
Omarchy Grade B
Opinionated Arch Linux setup built around the Hyprland tiling window manager, with preinstalled apps, themes and AI agent integration. Created by David Heinemeier Hansson and funded by the Omacom Foundation.
Omarchy scores 80 out of 100 (grade B) on the desktop operating systems criteria. It meets 3 of 4 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry and no ads or data sales.
OpenBSD Grade B
A security-focused Unix-like operating system descended from BSD, known for code auditing, secure defaults and exploit mitigations such as pledge and unveil.
Based in Canada (Five Eyes). OpenBSD scores 80 out of 100 (grade B) on the desktop operating systems criteria. It meets 3 of 4 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry and no ads or data sales.
Parrot Grade B
A Debian-based Linux distribution geared towards security, privacy and development, with editions for penetration testing and everyday use.
Parrot scores 80 out of 100 (grade B) on the desktop operating systems criteria. It meets 3 of 4 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry and no ads or data sales.
Qubes OS Grade B
A security-oriented desktop operating system that uses Xen virtualization to run applications in separate, isolated virtual machines called qubes.
Qubes OS scores 80 out of 100 (grade B) on the desktop operating systems criteria. It meets 3 of 4 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry and no ads or data sales.
secureblue Grade B
Hardened images of Fedora Atomic desktops and servers, with a hardened memory allocator and hardened kernel and system settings.
secureblue scores 80 out of 100 (grade B) on the desktop operating systems criteria. It meets 3 of 4 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry and no ads or data sales.
Fedora Grade C
A Linux distribution developed by the Fedora Project and sponsored by Red Hat, offering recent software in Workstation, Server and Atomic desktop editions.
Based in the United States (Five Eyes). Fedora scores 65 out of 100 (grade C) on the desktop operating systems criteria. It meets 2 of 4 criteria: open source and no ads or data sales.
Kicksecure Grade C
A security-hardened Linux distribution based on Debian, with hardened kernel and system settings, from the developers of Whonix.
Based in the Marshall Islands. Kicksecure scores 65 out of 100 (grade C) on the desktop operating systems criteria. It meets 2 of 4 criteria: open source and no ads or data sales.
openSUSE Grade C
A community Linux distribution sponsored by SUSE, available as the rolling Tumbleweed and the fixed-release Leap, with the YaST and Zypper system tools.
openSUSE scores 65 out of 100 (grade C) on the desktop operating systems criteria. It meets 2 of 4 criteria: open source and no ads or data sales.