# Qubes OS 98 Hacker News commenters recommended Qubes OS and 27 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 3 years (6 owners). It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Recommended for strong security through hardware-virtualized compartments, with disposable and offline VMs that keep secrets safe; critics cite slowness, setup hassle and weaker hardware security than phones. ## Why people recommend it - Strong VM-based compartmentalization (12 comments): "QubesOS falls really short in supply chain integrity, and server solutions, but IMO the overall hypervisor/IOMMU isolation architecture is the most practical" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46285947)) "Everything else has worse security almost by definition (since you can virtualize it and increase its security that way)." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47560217)) "it also relies on the hardware-assisted virtualization (VT-d), which is virtually unbreakable compared to anything else" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48195430)) - Disposable and offline vault VMs (4 comments): "with some effort you can get a really nice stack with segmented git, disposable coding agents, package cachers, firewalls, and network visibility" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48925372)) "I do run Qubes, and a compromised router, e.g., will not get access to any passwords that I store in an offline VM as text" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47050221)) "temporary disposable virtual machines in QubesOS to isolate those kinds of activities from my more vulnerable systems" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46004982)) - Practical as a daily driver (5 comments): "I love what they're doing and it's my preferred daily driver, but from a security standpoint they're still pushing molasses up a sandy hill." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47248132)) "Give Qubes OS a shot. It's significantly less challenging to run than it used to be, and a (small, I admit) number of us daily drive it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49077985)) "I run Qubes as a daily driver according to the docs, and my workflow was not vulnerable to the discussed attack." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47872978)) - Per-app Tor, VPN or plain networking (2 comments): "with some effort you can get a really nice stack with segmented git, disposable coding agents, package cachers, firewalls, and network visibility" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48925372)) "there is something really nice about being able to run different applications over Tor, VPN or plain internet simultaneously" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49497446)) ## What people warn about - Slow, with performance overhead (3 comments): "Qubes doesn't solve this either, IIRC the apps running in VMs are glued to the host with X11 forwarding without any acceleration support." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46260705)) "Qubes has tighter isolation than android does, but is slower and too much of a hassle for your typical employee or relative." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50043827)) "it was awkward, limited, had major performance problems, and yet never managed to fully prevent circumvention" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49682872)) - Hassle to adopt and use (4 comments): "Qubes is one specific approach to a problem not suitable for all goals, it's useful for hobbyists who use browsers and such." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46638600)) "Qubes has tighter isolation than android does, but is slower and too much of a hassle for your typical employee or relative." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50043827)) "Perhaps is a good solution. But the focus is in a solution very easy to adopt and your proposal requires the qube OS." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48106045)) - Weaker than modern mobile OSes (3 comments): "Qubes OS is inherently vastly more vulnerable than GrapheneOS, in large part precisely because of their different approaches to hardware." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47184162)) "Qubes is great but at the end of the day cannot protect against evil maid attacks to the level that pixel or apple phones can." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47184754)) "the guest VMs which run traditional desktop OSes are generally much less secure than mobile OSes" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47059389)) - Complex stack with lingering vulnerabilities (5 comments): "Qubes had some great security design and implemented it the only way time/funds would allow: by cobbling together a lot of unfortunately very complex and broken things" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49504589)) "I love what they're doing and it's my preferred daily driver, but from a security standpoint they're still pushing molasses up a sandy hill." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47248132)) "even though QubesOS attack surface is so tiny (well-designed to be secure) there are still vulnerabilities to be found" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49497634)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [OpenBSD](https://hackerapproved.com/p/openbsd.md): 248 recommend - [Tails](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tails.md): 14 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Qubes OS", https://hackerapproved.com/p/qubes-os/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).