• Disposable vms for security
• You can use multiple (and no) vpns at the same time
• Effortless use of integrated Whonix
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@solene
I’m impressed with the amount of genuine responses your question got in just a week and this also makes me proud of our little community.
For me it was the wonderful mix of:
a. separating applications into qubes allows better stability. When I’m “fidgeting”, installing or making changes in certain qubes (media, personal) it will never affect my work qubes. Enjoying this separation in a workable way was not possible without Qubes-OS unique ability to see on the same desktop the various applications running inside different guest-VMs.
b. working with a distro that has security in mind, and the very special community that come with it.
c. I do allot of work through remote vpn connections to clients’ systems, and so I was limited and couldn’t connect to two clients at the same time. Having a disposable qube, which I can open in parallel as many as I need, from which I can connect to few different clients at the same time without compromising security made a huge difference for me in terms of compliance, efficiency, and convenience.
I like to share with people this combination to demonstrate how Qubes-OS isn’t just about security or compartmentalization, but can answer operational needs that sometimes don’t come to mind.
I made the switch a few years ago and I don’t remember how I discovered Qubes-OS in the first place, but I know that for me it made a huge difference, so big thank you to the Devs and our community 
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Qubes seems to be the only option which gives actual protection against digital fingerprinting. The virtual machine approach is the only one which seem to work right now against it
I can run whatever apps I want without worrying that I will end up with identity stolen. I also can install whatever apps I want without worrying about dependency hell
I also can make Youtube show me only the content I want. If I want to learn a skill I can create a vm for this topic. And Youtube will show me videos about this topic specifically
Even if you take away privacy and security benefits of Qubes it is still the best operating system I ever used. I don’t feel like my computer is using me. I feel like I am using my computer for my own benefit
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For the first 3 weeks or so after the switch I dreaded to even open my computer with Qubes. I felt exhausted quite fast trying to get used to it
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At the time I switched, I was heavy into security research and blue teaming.
Number one feature that streamlined my workflow was Disposable VMs. The ability to create nuanced disposable templates to investigate and test with saved me so much prep work.
The second was the networking flexibility. Albeit a little confusing at times, it is nice to be able to divide up traffic by VM/purpose.
Third was the active forum that celebrates useful ideas, people, and solutions.
Now if I could just get ARM support…
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It’s more likely that another team will fork the Xen project and make Qubes like OS based on that. You can achieve Qubes like experience if you are willing to play with Xen
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Is it possible to convert the original post into a wiki?
Including some kind of summary would be great, don’t you think? I’m afraid that we will end up with a monster like the What would you like to see improved in Qubes OS? topic where information is lost in so many posts.
Draft of such a summary
- Xen-level compartmentalization/isolation:
- to control the software
- to protect myself from a hostile WAN and a browser (any browser) with organization-level cross-incentives
- … that already worked enough (within reason) out of the box
- slick
- clear
- Totally doable system/network admin scriptability/orchestration
- Pretty good integration with Whonix/Tor:
- torify arbitrary applications without fearing leaks
- Free, libre, open source (comment: Is Qubes OS free and open-source software?)
- doesn’t have a suspicious license agreement
- Helpful user community, active forum that celebrates useful ideas, people, and solutions.
- accessible and careful devs
- ability to set up offline qubes for storing secrets such as passwords and GPG keys
- Idea of templates, appVM, and dvm is brilliant:
- working with many Linux distros, Windows, it is fast and it takes up little disk space
- using cool tools that work only with older Debian/Ubuntu versions, without worrying about it
- installing apps without worrying about dependencies
- using many VPNs simultaneously.
- Disposable vms:
- for security
- The ability to create nuanced disposable templates to investigate and test with save so much prep work.
- excellent and very convenient forensic protection, thanks to the large fantastic community for guides.
- ability to run virtual machines with integration between VMs
- minimize any damage from Malware, phishing, and other unpleasant efforts
- the UI:
- a single app running in a VM can integrate well in the GUI domain, almost as a regular app in a regular distro
- VM-dependent description and window colors help to refrain from doing stupid things
- Isolating base OS from the network and letting only virtual vm’s to have network/internet.
- the possibility of attaching a webcam to a virtual machine and have it working out-of-the-box for video calls
- The security that allows a complex Windows 7 environment to still be used
- For testing, the creation of VM clones at a click, stopping to make disastrous tests expensive, with client/server environments on just one machine
- The peace of mind when doing things like going to dangerous websites or opening documents of doubtful origin.
- Having a modern software system showing, in teaching, where software development is / should be going nowadays.
- Tails-like amnesic behavior when wanted, but with full customization and the ability to install whatever apps
- And the flexibility to run any OS in isolated qubes, with strong security guarantees, is unmatched.
- The networking that gives absolute control (up to what sys-net is doing within itself) because each netvm is a router we can audit and monitor
- That networking allowed me to build complex systems using many VPNs, although it was possible on OpenBSD using multiple routing tables or Linux with ip rules, it was easier to use on Qubes OS
- in freelance/professional activity, being able to separate the systems used for each client and their VPN was a must
- to be able to
npm install ...to get work done and I don’t want to have to worry about getting infected everytime I need to do so. - separating applications into qubes allows better stability: when I’m “fidgeting”, installing or making changes in certain qubes (media, personal) it will never affect my work qubes.
- Qubes seems to be the only option which gives actual protection against digital fingerprinting:
- ability to run whatever apps without worrying that I will end up with identity stolen.
- make Youtube show me only the content I want. If I want to learn a skill I can create a vm for this topic. And Youtube will show me videos about this topic specifically
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Done!
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Thanks! Unless someone else want to rewrite and add the summary before me, I will do that later.
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Qubes isn’t a libre os. I know that because FSF recommended distros do not run with all the hardware I have. But Qubes works with all hardware I have
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AFAIK the QubesOS code is. The firmware you load for your hardware e.g. is not.
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If you have the time and interest, please submit HCL reports in the HCL Reports category so others may understand which hardware works well with Qubes OS.
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True isolation of software and control over what they can and cannot access. And all this built into an easy to use form, unlike using cumbersome manual VMs on an ordinary Linux system.
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FWIW, there’s an FAQ entry addressing this:
https://doc.qubes-os.org/en/latest/introduction/faq.html#is-qubes-os-free-and-open-source-software
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That paragraph is a long “NO” answer to the question “Is QubesOS libre?” 
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I think that (except the obvious, enormous security gains) is one of my main reasons as well. Citing Micah Lee,
When I use Qubes I feel like a god. Software thinks that it’s in control, that it can do what it wants? It can’t. I’m in control.
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Actually, it’s hard to summarize that kind of topic 
I put something in solene’s OP but it’s not a clear summary.
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The ability to run hvms with GPU passthrough with good performance and having a thin “host” that doesn’t get bloated with features and start bogging down the vms. I was already using VirtualBox to isolate my workspaces before, but QubesOS is so much better than that. Of course, not everything worked well for my use case out of the box and it is still not perfect.
Internet privacy is not any concern to me, but I care about safety against malware and spyware.
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