Qubes uses virtualization, sandboxing to deliver a more secure desktop OS

Filed under: OS Updates, Security

It's probably a safe assumption that if a project to design a new operating system involved an experienced security researcher that the goal would be an OS which is darn near bulletproof. That's exactly what Joanna Rutkowska is gunning for with Qubes, which she's pegged for release later this year.

Qubes is a bit different from the desktop OSes most of us are familiar with, though it looks similar. It's built on Fedora and Xen and aims to deliver a more secure desktop through the use of sandboxing and "App VMs." Each VM is isolated, though you're still able to do pass data between them (via secure copy and paste).

There's a price to pay in terms of system resources for the added security, but it's reasonable. A typical App VM uses about 400MB of memory but can run a handful of apps in that space (e.g. Firefox, Thunderbird, and OpenOffice).

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Qubes uses virtualization, sandboxing to deliver a more secure desktop OS originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 08 Apr 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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