Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Xen VS Qubes OS

Compare Xen VS Qubes OS and see what are their differences

Xen logo Xen

Xen Project: Open Source Hypervisor, High Performance Clouds, Free Software, Open Source Virtualization, Open Virtualization, Cloud Computing, Desktop Virtualization, Mobile Virtualization, Embedded Virtualization.

Qubes OS logo Qubes OS

Qubes is a security-oriented, free and open-source operating system for personal computers that allows you to securely compartmentalize your digital life.‎Download Mirrors · ‎Qubes R4.
  • Xen Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-12-16
  • Qubes OS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-13

Xen videos

Black Mesa: Xen Review - Finally

More videos:

  • Review - Analysis: Black Mesa Xen

Qubes OS videos

Qubes OS Review | Windows Integration

More videos:

  • Review - Qubes OS Part 1: Overview and Features
  • Tutorial - Qubes OS Tutorial | Install, Config, and Introduction

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Xen and Qubes OS)
Cloud Computing
100 100%
0% 0
Operating Systems
0 0%
100% 100
Virtualization
100 100%
0% 0
Linux
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Xen and Qubes OS. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Xen and Qubes OS

Xen Reviews

What are the Top Most Open Source Virtualization Software?
It is often treated as the default standard in Linux hypervisors. Xen is known to be an excellent open source for paravirtualization.
Best Server Virtualization Software
A free, open-source virtual machine monitor (VMM), Xen Project was initially designed by a team at Cambridge University. The team later created their own company centered around Xen Project, which was purchased by Citrix. Since then, Xen Project has partnered with The Linux Foundation as part of its work to drive collaborative tools.
8 Free & Best Open source bare metal hypervisors (Foss)
Xen is an open-source software platform or Linux hypervisor distro maintained by the global community of developers It supports virtualization for x86, x86_64, IA64, ARM, and other CPU architectures. The Xen hypervisor is an enterprise-class alternative to proprietary virtualization platforms and hypervisors for x86 and IA64 platforms. Besides the open-source, it also...
Best VirtualBox Alternatives & Competitors [Top 7 2019]
Xen is the best VirtualBox alternatives and super functional without altering the hard disk of your computer. Hence, emulate the most popular such as IA-32, IA-64, x86, x86-64 e PowerPC 970. Execute, the best systems without a lag. Experience the same quality on multiple platforms at the same level as your native operating system with Xen.
Introduction to Top Open Source Virtualization Tools
Xen is a hypervisor that started out as a Microsoft backed startup at the University of Cambridge and has now risen to become one of the best Linux hypervisors. The Xen Hypervisor is inserted between the server’s hardware and the operating system. This creates an abstraction layer that allows multiple guest operating systems to be concurrently executed on a single physical...

Qubes OS Reviews

The 10 Best Immutable Linux Distributions in 2024
Given the nature of immutable distributions, a strong emphasis on security is essential. Distributions that implement robust security measures, whether through sandboxing applications, using secure package management systems, or providing advanced isolation techniques (like in Qubes OS), were given priority.
Best Linux distro for privacy and security of 2024
Thanks to its radically different approach, Qubes does have a learning curve. However it isn’t abrupt enough to prevent you from using the distro like a normal Linux installation. Qubes is based on Fedora and uses the Xfce desktop environment. But instead of a list of apps, its application menu lists several qubes such as work, personal, untrusted, each of which rolls the...
Top 5 Secure Operating Systems for Privacy and Anonymity
In short, Qubes is an operating system that separates tasks and applications into distinct VMs and further isolates them using containers. By leveraging these technologies, Qubes OS can deliver enhanced performance and security.
The 5 Best Privacy-Focused Operating Systems
Qubes OS is a unique privacy-focused Linux distribution that prioritizes security through virtualization. It allows you to create isolated virtual machines (VMs) for different tasks, enhancing privacy and security. Each VM runs separately, reducing the risk of data leaks and malware infections.
Avoid The Hack: 11 Best Privacy Friendly Operating Systems (Desktops)
Qubes is unique in that it uses Xen-based virtualization, which enables strong isolation of different pieces of software - which can include operating systems. Multiple operating systems can run at the same time through Qubes - and they won't even "know" other operating systems exist.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Qubes OS should be more popular than Xen. It has been mentiond 55 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Xen mentions (10)

  • Best virtualization solution with Ubuntu 22.04
    If you want an all around easy to use tool that can manager containers (create on the fly, delete when unnecessary, etc.) look into vagrant. There are also options like xen and virtualbox but they are not so lightweight. All of them are in ubuntu repositories. Source: 12 months ago
  • Modular building blocks: The case of Amazon
    On the other hand, EC2 was built in isolation by a team of two, Chris Pinkham and Chris Brown, working remotely from South Africa. The idea behind building EC2 was to allow developers to build and run their application on Amazon’s servers, regardless of what type of application it was. The plan was to build EC2 on top of an open source tool called Xen which made it possible to run several applications on one... - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Announcing Rust 1.68.0
    There was of course a generation where Xen was the way to make kernel-level containers, but those kernels still had to communicate with a form of ABI. I barely used Xen so I can't say how many of the same concerns apply, but in any case, userland containers won out over kernel containers in the end, and I'm glad for it. Source: about 1 year ago
  • XSAs released on 2022-11-01
    Qubes OS uses the Xen hypervisor as part of its architecture. When the Xen Project publicly discloses a vulnerability in the Xen hypervisor, they issue a notice called a Xen security advisory (XSA). Vulnerabilities in the Xen hypervisor sometimes have security implications for Qubes OS. When they do, we issue a notice called a Qubes security bulletin (QSB). (QSBs are also issued for non-Xen vulnerabilities.)... Source: over 1 year ago
  • A Dad Took Photos of His Naked Toddler for the Doctor. Google Flagged Him as a Criminal.
    It depends greatly on the implementation you use and the rest of the tooling you use. Using QEMU+KVM directly & raw is very different from using libvirt-backed (which abstracts over various other backends like Xen [virt-manager])(https://virt-manager.org/) (which is a lot closer to the VirtualBox experience) to make the whole experience easier and simpler). Source: almost 2 years ago
View more

Qubes OS mentions (55)

  • Unprivileged Process Injection Techniques in Linux
    If you care about security, consider Qubes OS, which relies on hardware virtualization to provide a much higher security than ordinary Linux: https://qubes-os.org. - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • The Windows installer of ImageMagick will no longer be signed
    You may be interested in trying Qubes OS, which provides security through compartmentalization: https://qubes-os.org. - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
  • Richard Stallman on why GNU su didn't support the “wheel” group
    The solution is to use https://qubes-os.org. My daily driver, can't recommend it enough. - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • Ask HN: What projects are trying to reinvent core software infrastructure?
    > operating systems https://qubes-os.org, a reasonably secure operating system. Smartphones: Librem 5 running desktop GNU/Linux and desktop apps. - Source: Hacker News / 10 months ago
  • Google tries internet air-gap for some staff PCs
    Or they could simply use Qubes OS: https://qubes-os.org. - Source: Hacker News / 10 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Xen and Qubes OS, you can also consider the following products

VirtualBox - VirtualBox is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product for enterprise as well as...

Tails - Tails is a Debian based live CD/USB with the goal of providing complete Internet anonymity for the...

QEMU - QEMU (short for "Quick EMUlator") is a free and open-source hosted hypervisor that...

Whonix - Whonix aims at preserving your privacy and anonymity by helping you use your applications...

VMware Workstation - VMware Workstation is a multiple operating system handler to easily evaluate the any other type of new operating systems.

Linux Mint - Linux Mint is one of the most popular desktop Linux distributions and used by millions of people.