An update has been created for Qubes OS 4.0.4, implementing the concept of using a hypervisor for strict isolation of applications and OS components (each class of applications and system services operates in separate virtual machines). A 4.9 GB installation image has been prepared for download. A system with 4 GB of RAM and a 64-bit Intel or AMD CPU with support for VT-x with EPT/AMD-v with RVI and VT-d/AMD IOMMU is required; it is preferable to have an Intel GPU (NVIDIA and AMD GPUs have not been tested as thoroughly).
Applications in Qubes are divided into classes based on the importance of the processed data and the tasks being addressed, with each class of applications and system services (network subsystem, storage handling, etc.). When a user launches an application from the menu, that application starts in a specific virtual machine, in which a separate X server, a simplified window manager, and a dummy video driver run, transmitting the output to the managing environment in compositing mode. At the same time, applications are seamlessly accessible within a single desktop and are highlighted with different colored window borders for clarity. Each environment has read-only access to the base root filesystem and local storage, which does not overlap with the storages of other environments. The user shell is based on Xfce.
The new release only notes updates to the versions of programs that form the basic system environment (dom0). Templates have been prepared for creating virtual environments based on Fedora 32, Debian 10, and Whonix 15. The Linux 5.4 kernel is recommended by default.
Source: opennet.ru
