Qubes OS 4.2 released with Dom0 upgraded to Fedora 37 and PipeWire support

Qubes OS, a Linux distribution that describes itself as a “reasonably secure operating system”, has unveiled its 4.2 version, incorporating a wide range of new features, significant enhancements, and bug fixes. Key highlights of this new version include an upgrade of Dom0 to Fedora 37 and Xen to version 4.17. The default Debian template has been upgraded to Debian 12, and both the default Fedora and Debian templates now utilize Xfce instead of GNOME. Additionally, SELinux support has been incorporated into the Fedora templates.

Several GUI applications have undergone rewrites in this release. These include the Applications Menu, Qubes Global Settings, Create New Qube, and Qubes Update. Qubes OS 4.2 also introduces a unified grub.cfg location for UEFI and legacy boot, along with PipeWire support and fwupd integration for firmware updates. There's also the option for automatic clipboard clearing, and official packages are now built using Qubes Builder v2.

Furthermore, Qubes OS 4.2 has split GPG management in Qubes Global Settings and improved keyboard layout switching. Qrexec services in this new version utilize a new qrexec policy format by default, although the old format remains supported.