Does any Qubes like Linux distro exist?

General Discussion
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From such distro I would expect:

  • easy way to run every app in different user or container
  • display all of such users’/containers’ windows on some “master” user’s display
  • able to pass devices to such users/containers
  • able to use different network for each user/container (for example different VPN servers simultaneously, or no VPN at all)
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I have recorded some on my website.

Most similar is Spectrum, it is trying to be an alternative to QubesOS, but still in development at the moment of writing. Others are hit or miss, most (PlagueOS, Split Linux, Makatea) are abandoned, SmartOS is cloud-first, so not a desktop system, Genode isn’t an OS in the first place

Spectrum talk at QubesOS summit 2025

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There’s also Redox OS, which is in active development.
“a complete Unix-like microkernel-based operating system written in Rust, with a focus on security, reliability and safety … intended to be a complete alternative to Linux and BSD, in the cloud and on the desktop.”

Revirt promised a type-1 hypervisor. It seemed stalled last time I checked, but that was a few years ago…

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There isn’t really one which even comes close to Qubes’ level of security. As otter2 said, most similar is spectrum, which is very promising. That said, spectrum is still very early in development, I wouldn’t use it for anything other than either just seeing how it is or to help out with development.

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Is there a way to display other users’ windows on another user’s display on Wayland? That way one could hack together something even remotely similar to Qubes, and not have to share your whole home dir with untrusted apps.

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From what I can find only GenodeOS with it’s Desktop variant called SculptOS has similar features like Qubes does

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