Comparison of Whonix-Gateway™ and Whonix-Workstation™

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• What is Whonix-Gateway?
• What is Whonix-Workstation?
• Comparison of Whonix-Gateway and Whonix-Workstation

Whonix-Gateway Xfce VM running in the VirtualBox virtualizer (illustrative image)

Whonix-Workstation Xfce VM running in the VirtualBox virtualizer (illustrative image)

The differences of Whonix-Gateway and Whonix-Workstation.

	Whonix-Gateway	Whonix-Workstation
Designed for	Running Tor processes; Acts as a gateway for the Workstation	Running user applications and online tasks securely and anonymously
Connection to other component	N/A (It's the gateway itself)	Connects to Whonix-Gateway
User applications	Should NOT run user-centric applications	Should be launched from here (e.g., Tor Browser, Thunderbird)
Network connectivity	Provides Tor connectivity to the Workstation	Uses either the Tor network or no connectivity; Must start Whonix-Gateway first for functional network connection
Configuration	Anon Connection Wizard for Tor configuration; option to connect to public Tor network or configure Bridges, controlling Tor	Pre-configured for use with Whonix-Gateway
Purpose	Minimal user interaction; Mainly for Tor configuration, controlling Tor, and installing updates	For running applications and general use
Link to Tor	Directly runs Tor	All applications use the Tor network when launched from here
Importance of Startup Sequence	N/A	Whonix-Gateway must be started first for online functionality. Otherwise, Whonix-Workstation can only be used offline.

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