An update to the Qubes 4.0.4 operating system has been created, which implements the idea of ββusing a hypervisor for strict isolation of applications and OS components (each class of applications and system services runs in separate virtual machines). A 4.9 GB installation image has been prepared for download. To work, you need 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 technologies, preferably an Intel GPU (NVIDIA and AMD GPUs are not well tested ).
Applications in Qubes are divided into classes depending on the importance of the data being processed and the tasks to be solved, each class of applications, as well as system services (network subsystem, work with storage, etc.). When the user launches an application from the menu, the application starts in a specific virtual machine that runs a separate X server, a lightweight window manager, and a stub video driver that translates output to the control environment in composite mode. At the same time, applications are seamlessly available within the same desktop and are highlighted for clarity with different window frame colors. Each environment has read access to the underlying root FS and local storage that does not overlap with the storage of other environments. The user shell is based on Xfce.
The new release only marks the update of 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 offered by default.
Source: opennet.ru