Stop believing these myths about Qubes OS. It’s a lot easier than you think

If you’ve heard of Qubes, you’ve probably heard about its stringent hardware requirements or difficulty of use. Although there is an element of truth there, the reality is quite different. There’s an obstacle or two in your way, and I’m going to cover some of the misconceptions about it amazing system.

Difficult to install

No, it’s a simple, half-hour job

Qubes can have a bad reputation for being difficult to install and use, and aside from wrapping your head around how hardware and VM file systems work, it’s not difficult at all. If you have a machine you know is compatible, installing it is as easy as Linux Mint. Yes, he is does! I have done this several times over the years.

You need a lot of RAM

No, 16 GB is all you need, it’s common

Qubes is memory hungry, yes, but that doesn’t mean you need 64GB of RAM. I personally require a lot for development work, but 16GB should satisfy most users. I’ve only run 16GB over the years, often with 9 VMs active and only the occasional, manageable issue.

Sometimes I find myself stopping some VMs to make room, but 95% of the time it’s not a problem. I’ve heard of people working with 8GB, which is definitely achievable, but a bit tight.

A rough profile of my memory usage:

Of these, if I run large and complex software, my development domain can take up to 10 GB, but that’s even on Linux. You can expect Chromium to take up a few more GB of space if you have a lot of tabs open and spread multiple copies across multiple domains.

The memory profile you see has plenty of free space for a total system of 16 GB.

Qubes works on all hardware

No, it works on most modern hardware, but not all

Qubes has very specific requirements, and while most modern hardware supports it, not all do. However, as technology advances, this base is becoming more common consumer hardware. Advanced features like VT-d, which isolates your USB and Wi-Fi devices, were once a luxury; now a significant part of current equipment covers them.

If you think Buy an old ThinkPaddo it! These are great laptops, but be aware that some are not up to spec. Any guess made in the last five years, but don’t assume. This also applies to new equipment. Do your due diligence and search HCL and people’s opinions on the Qubes forums.

Qubes is another distro

No, it’s a Xen hypervisor that boots Linux kernels as VMs

Qubes is technically not a Linux distribution. It actually feels a little weird to answer “Qubes” when asked what distro I’m using. On top of that, it’s possible to run Arch, Fedora, and Debian, which makes the answer a bit vague.

The core of Qubes is the Xen hypervisor – a specialized virtual machine manager. This is not Linux with a bolt-on kernel; this is Xen running the Fedora administration VM. When you use Qubes, it looks and feels like Fedora because that’s the part you interface with. It’s built like Linux, and apart from the occasional mention of “Xen” or its rarely used tools, you won’t notice the difference.

Qubes prevents exploitation

No, it just contains attacks

It’s a common misconception that security software stops attacks dead in their tracks. There is no such tool. Antivirus processes network and system behavior with signature checks; intrusion detection systems control heuristics; SELinux and permissions limit the damage an attacker can do; and other techniques attempt to make the environment less predictable. Qubes simply contains the attack, and through proper identity isolation, your high-risk tasks will hopefully not be mixed with sensitive personal data.

None of these systems are foolproof, but when others prevent exploitation, Qubes assumes it’s inevitable and includes them. So you can still lose information, most likely not the things you are most interested in. Qubes still requires sensible security practices. Except for sudo, nobody uses it on Qubes!

It is not very difficult, but increasingly necessary

Qubes is not as difficult as people think. The trickiest part is making sure you choose the right hardware, but with modern technology and some careful planning, installing Qubes is actually pretty smooth. Resources are also managed; 16 GB RAM and 500 GB SSD are enough.

Qubes is still a mystery to many and many do not see its value. For a long time, few people saw the point of privacy, but more and more people are waking up to it being eroded. I think a lot of hand-waving around Qubes is the reason this is misunderstood. But as our digital maturity increases, such as privacy before it, people will appreciate security-oriented systems, especially as the scale of modern attacks increases.