Hi. I am new user of qubes. I have been using the OS for about 3 weeks now.
I have previously used Debian Linux for around 3 years prior to starting on qubes.
The initial 30 mins for me was somewhat overwhelming but everything after this time period I picked up very easily. From what I can see it’s a fedora operating system with a Xfce GUI with multiple vms to compartmentalize certain features of the operating system i.e networking i.e firewall all built into the main start bar for easy access to vm’s but overall managed through the qubes manager. As well as app vms and disposable vms for certain needs.,
So far I am so happy to make the change. I have bought specific hardware for it to run very well and recognizes my 2 CPUs out of the box without having to rebuild the kernel. However, there are 1 or 2 things I feel could be improved.
My suggestions for the OS :
although the colour coding for certain vms or trust levels is useful I feel the start menu is somewhat disorganized. When a new VM is created its just simply bundled into a big list in the start menu. For which yes makes it easily accessible without going into the qubes manager. But in terms of organization i dont feel is sufficient.
For example I might have particular set of vms that all fall under one project but the way qubes is set up it doesn’t allow me to group these together under a specific folder or grouping. Instead, my one VM from one project could be listed next to another VM from a totally separate project when listed in the start menu which i don’t like because I feel its disorganized. Take for example virtual box although it doesn’t compare to qubes in terms of security secondly only being software not a complete operating system it allowed creating a VM folder which made organization incredibly easy, .
Secondly The ability to name work spaces like in mate (reflected on the GUI) . I can see there is an ability to name a work space but i don’t see the ability to reflect the name on GUI of the desktop. How are you suppose to know which workspace is which if its not reflected ?
Thirdly along the application task bar along the top. The application space shows a brief description of what is happening in the VM. I think it would be better if the name of the VM was provided in this space. As that means the user doesn’t have to click the application / VM to find out what VM is being used. Sure they could look at the colour but if there have several vms under that same colour then they would need to check through them anyway. I don’t feel this is efficient as if the name of the vm was displayed it could be rapidly sorted into work spaces. again which would be made even easier if the workspace name was displayed on the gui and not just in the settings or by hovering the mouse over it .
Again just suggestions. i really like everything this OS has achieved in terms of security and a hardened operating system and will definitely continue using it … but i feel with high number of vms it is not easily organized .
