Qubes for Noobs
I’m starting* a blog (do people still call it that) where I document my learning of the Qubes operating system.
About me: I’m a human of standard noob variety. I like the Internet, and sometimes I follow security news. I like my GUI operating systems, usability, and I also care about the human rights space. Things I can do in my terminal include changing directories and listing what’s in the content of a folder. Boy, can I change directories like nobody else. (So no, I’m not very good at computers.)
Why I’m doing this: I know some lovable security nerds. These wonderful-but-possibly-wrong humans think Qubes is usable for normal people in risky situations. So as a certified Normal Person (?), let me judgingly judge. IS QUBES USABLE? Can it be used for normal people things? Let’s find out!
I’ve tried to learn Qubes for (looks at watch) one year now, which consisted of me:
- going to a Qubes introduction event
- getting a device for using Qubes (a Lenovo Thinkpad — why does it have a nipple button in the middle of the keyboard? Is the track pad supposed to be terrible?)
- installing Qubes on that device
- feeling too intimidated to open that device again.
In case it’s useful to others, I’ll try to post my frustrations and findings here, in an attempt to actually figure out how to use this software, and whether it makes sense to recommend it to my fellow normals.
Here we go.
The installation process was really nice (this was done from a USB with the operating system included, from the help of the event facilitator) — it didn’t take too long, the instructions were clear, and I was able to successfully boot up my device. It asked for two passwords to be set: one for full-disk encryption (so the contents would be unreadable to those attempting physical access), and one for the user login. That process was painless.
After installing Qubes, I felt that the interface was unfamiliar to me. Here’s what me, as a basic, soy latte-sipping user observed:
- The time in the upper-right corner, following standard interface design conventions.
- An audio icon.
- My username.
- An indication of the battery life.
- A startup icon (conveniently found in the corner of the desktop) — Qubes did follow this convention, and it’s appropriately a tiny square. But then you click on it, and it’s like whaaaat you’re in Qubes land now and nothing feels familiar anymore. And you have to know what you want to do, what kind of VM you want to run. Then the dread sets in.
- At this point, I had closed the computer and left it covered in dust for months. Yay!
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I am back after close to a year. I have opened this machine of anxiety and boxes and boxes within boxes.
I realized I needed to update my software. I had to find out how to update the dom0 (the main system that lets all the other VMs run). AND what’s super fun is that you can’t search for updates via the System Tools. Instead, I had to create a new VM, where I opened Firefox, and had to search for “update qubes OS”, where I was then led to typing “sudo qubes-dom0-update” in the Dom0 Terminal.
- My fellow normals: This was not fun.
- It has asked me for my consent to update with a simple y or n. I have typed y, but I really meant, why, why am I doing this.
- Fifteen minutes after typing that initial command “sudo qubes-dom0-update”, it is still updating.
Wow.
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*By “starting” a blog, I mean this might be the only post if I get too frustrated/if the Qubes gods do not favor me. If I do not post in another year, pray for me.