I always wonder that does QubesOS can work as daily drive laptop and use essential software as LibreOffice, Blender 3D, Gimp, Inkscape, and the others?
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Why not? I use my P51 as my daily system, running on Qubes (since Qubes 3, currently on 4.2.4).
I use that system mostly for office, work (SW Development on Java/Kotlin with Intellij Idea), text writing (Scrivener/LaTex) and fun (surfing the net, chats, social media).
Only for games i have a second system, driven by MS Windows. But on that system are nothing important or pesonally specific, that is worth to secure.
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Yes, same here - formerly with a P50 system (which now still is in use at work), now with a Lenovo P1 (Gen. 3).
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LibreOffice and Inkscape are OK, GIMP 3.0 works but is a bit slower to process.
Blender requires 3D rendering for display, it will be horrible to use on Qubes OS where rendering is done on CPU.
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Same here, Qubes is my daily driver for many years. I do not play games or work with heavy graphics. Everything else works just fine. And it gives a great peace of mind. My laptop is Librem 14, and it works flawlessly, including suspend.
How I use it: What's your system layout like? - #6 by fsflover
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Likewise. I have a desktop (actually it’s one of those mini boxes) running qubes. There’s a windows virtual machine on it that I almost never have to use.
(In essence the windows machine it gets used when I need to run a camera tethered as that software simply doesn’t exist in Linux–cue someone who will mention Wine, except that running a Windows VM is vastly better than Wine so maybe I’m safe on this forum.)
Absolutely everything else I want to do can be done in Linux and thus can be done in Qubes.
I’ve even got things set up so my laptop is a “mini-me” of the desktop system…though it is VERY slow and has no access to my network storage.
To sum up you can absolutely use Qubes as your “daily driver” machine as long as you’re not doing gaming or heavy graphics (as fslover just said).
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Gaming or heavy graphics also isn’t an issue, if you have hardware designed for that type of work.
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Super, I do wish can changed the color theme as Matte/Dracula for the eyes sight. White color theme is too bright.
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Yes
Qubes is also more work because it’s changing in different ways and sometimes unexpected ways. The good thing is if you are using Qubes, you will get better and more knowledgeable with computers and networking just because you will need to find solutions to things.
Qubes is an easier daily os if you have 2 GPUs or can attach one externally, since any GPU processing (for AI) needs to be attached to work.
Qubes is incredibly resource intensive however.
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“However”…?
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Librem Team will release Librem 14 v2 or Librem 15 laptop? I do wish Librem laptop have redesign.
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I find that QubesOS is the best daily driver (once the various painful entry hurdles have been overcome). I know of no other OS that makes it so convenient to do many different things on one device in everyday life - without mixing things that should remain separate.
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Yes, you can use Qubes OS as a daily driver. However, it is hard to recommend Qubes OS for daily use to the average user. In life, there are trade-offs, and Qubes OS has quite a few. Just to start:
- If I want to start a web browser, I first have to start a virtual machine. This takes time, and is slower than a simple Linux installation.
- My computer comes with 16 GB of memory, but is limited to about 4 GB.
- The computer just feels slower, very slow given the technology in the machine
Qubes OS takes a performance hit in exchange for better security, and you have to decide if that is what you want or not.
Qubes OS is not the only operating system to trade off performance, either. OpenBSD is a different way of achieving security, and is very nice, but has more limited drivers and software availability. Some Linux systems have immutable file-systems (e.g. Kinoite) which has security and maintenance benefits, but at a cost of usability.
I lurk around Qubes OS because I have an interest in security and virtual machines. Most people who use Linux have picked a straighforward, vanilla, version.
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Changing the Qubes theme is possible, if a bit more involved than on a normal distro. Steps from here may help: Dark Theme in Dom0
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@erickonix Yes, Librem 16 and 14 (see the note on top) are both in development.
This should become much faster soon:
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Try nightly use too. I use them both and it’s great. I am even not aware anymore which OS I actually use. Just like when writing (or typing) - not aware of the letters.
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You can get around this by putting a desktop link to the browser on that VM, on your “main” (dom0) desktop. Or it likely appears in your menu (though it might be “deep”) and if not can likely be added as a favorite.
That way one click would start the VM and then start the browser. It will be slower than “regular” linux but (from the user standpoint) just as easy.
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Does when will be the completion of Librem 16?
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I find my librem 14 really perfect for Qubes OS. No problem with performances
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Super
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