There are plenty of legitimate reasons why it’s important to be able to surf anonymously. Whether you want to cover your tracks whenever you enter personal data onto a website or whether you just want to hide your browsing activities; having a reliable anonymous surfing software can greatly help.
Vidalia is a simple but easy to use software that provides users with a great degree of privacy; ensuring that every surfing move is kept protected to a certain degree. When you download this program, you actually get a bundle of software that work together to make your internet activities anonymous.  The things you will get include the Tor, the Vidalia GUI to help manage your Tor experience as well as the Privoxy local proxy. All these work together to not only protect you from when you surf websites but it also helps anonymize your  IRC, instant messaging, SSH, and other internet activities.
The nice thing with Vidalia compared to other anonymous surfing programs like Jondo, is that it is considerably lighter and runs much faster. Of course, your internet speed might get affected every time you turn Tor on but that’s a small price to pay for the anonymity you are getting.
Once you have installed the system, you will have Tor running on the background every time you startup. If you are using Mozilla, then you can easily turn the Tor on and off to avoid causing latency in your surfing. On the other hand, you can also go under the “Customize” option in the installer if you want to simply disable the Tor during startup.
One thing that you might want to take note though, Vidalia might be capable of providing you with anonymous surfing but this doesn’t mean that it will  provide complete security. On their download page, they stress the importance of enabling other programs and functions you might have to ensure that your browsing will be completely secure.
Overall, the program works great if surfing anonymously is a must for you. Of course, it takes a considerable amount of (although not complete) knowledge when it comes to navigating and setting up the program. However, it does offer a simple and easy to understand interface that almost anybody can use.
Related Links:
Vidalia Official Website
Vidalia on Tom’s Guide
Vidalia on FreeWareGenius
Vidalia on Famous Why