There was some discussion in the last few days about whether using “qube” as a synonym for “VM” is a good idea. I wanted to make a (somewhat technical) suggestion in this area.
I think “qube” should basically mean “VM slot” - a thing that might be filled with a VM, or might not. So basically, it’s a collection of metadata (qube name, qube color, internet access rights, etc.) that might also include a VM, in RAM or on disk, but might also not.
This would allow users to create disposable qubes like
debian-12-xfce > default-dvm > google
which is completely disposable, but which nevertheless has its own bespoke name (“google”), color (pick one that makes sense to you), routes (e.g. maybe this particular qube should have internet routed directly, without any anonymisation, for example), apps, etc.
When you click
Q > default-dvm > google > Firefox ESR
the system fills that ‘google’ qube with a disposable VM so you can use it. Once the last window inside that VM is closed, the disposable VM is destroyed, but the qube itself remains.
There’s basically three levels of VM right now. Call them:
Primary (TemplateVMs and Standalones),
Secondary (AppVMs and disposable templates), and
Tertiary (disposables)
I don’t understand: what is the difference with a named disposable qube?
I’m still trying to navigate the lingo, but if I understand correctly, “named disposable” is basically an imprecise* term for a special case of what I’m describing. “Named disposable VM” refers to the specific configuration in which the qube specifically holds a TertiaryVM, and gets shutdown and reset on the final window close.
But this is a special case of qubes-as-boxes. For example, in my vision, the VM that fills a qube could be a SecondaryVM; it’s not forced to be tertiary. It could have any reset and/or shutdown policy:
manual reset,
periodic reset,
reset due to a disposability policy,
reset after updates
reset (delete) on shutdown
shutdown and reset on last window close (this is how named disposables work)
etc.
*The terminology is imprecise because a named disposable VM is not actually a VM most of the time. Indeed, it’s not actually a VM until you spawn one, thereby filling the qube. Most of the time, named disposables are just metadata for spawning the VM, not the VM itself. Notice that the terminology I’m proposing solves this: under my suggestion, the qube is the wrapper, and the VM is the thing that might be inside the wrapper.