Generated operating system update Qubes 4.0.4 , which implements the idea of using a hypervisor to strictly isolate applications and OS components (each class of applications and system services run in separate virtual machines). To download a 4.9 GB installation image has been prepared . requires a system with 4 GB of RAM and a 64-bit Intel or AMD CPU with VT- x c EPT / AMD-v c RVI and VT-d / AMD IOMMU, 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 being solved, each class of applications, as well as system services (network subsystem, working with storage, etc.). When the user launches an application from the menu, this application starts in a specific virtual machine, which runs a separate X server, a simplified window manager and a stub video driver that translates the 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 base root FS and local storage, which does not overlap with the storages of other environments. The custom skin is built on top of Xfce.
In the new release, only the update of the versions of programs that form the base system environment (dom0) is marked. Templates for creating virtual environments based on Fedora 32, Debian 10 and Whonix 15 have been prepared. By default, the Linux 5.4 kernel is offered.