Qubes r4.1 Extended security support ends

General Discussion
1

Background

Qubes OS r4.1 has become End-of-Life on 2024-06-18. Which means it has not received any feature updates but only security patches till yesterday. Even that is now finished.

Analysis

The current statistical data is not very promising. There are around 15’000 users still on r4.1 (i.e. around %14.6)

image
image2834×1889 139 KB

TODO

  • Promote upgrade to r4.2, troubleshoot and guide users who are unwillingly stock on r4.1 because they are afraid of upgrade. They are usually the least technically inclined users who need additional support and should not be left behind.
  • Update the available guides on other obstacles (e.g. QWT).
  • Update the Supported release page and mark r4.1 as unsupported.
3 Likes
2

AFAIK it was always the case that a similar portion of users delayed their upgrade. Isn’t this fine security-wise at least until a serious vulnerability is found and templates start to break?

1 Like
3

The problem is that many would rush to upgrade in such cases. And the load on volunteer supporters might be too much. Because of the obstacles the users face during the upgrade and due to the changes in the newer release.

4

I think history is against you here. There tends to be a slow tail off
on old releases, not clearly linked to vulnerabilities or breakage.

I never presume to speak for the Qubes team.
When I comment in the Forum I speak for myself.

2 Likes
5

Hopefully