Q4OS is a Debian-based desktop Linux distribution designed to offer classic-style user interface (Trinity) and simple accessories, and to serve stable APIs for complex third-party applications, such as Google Chrome, VirtualBox and development tools. The system is also very useful for virtual cloud environments due to its very low hardware requirements.
To compare the software in this project to the software available in other distributions, please see our Compare Packages page.
Notes: In case where multiple versions of a package are shipped with a distribution, only the default version appears in the table. For indication about the GNOME version, please check the "nautilus" and "gnome-shell" packages. The Apache web server is listed as "httpd" and the Linux kernel is listed as "linux". The KDE desktop is represented by the "plasma-desktop" package and the Xfce desktop by the "xfdesktop" package.
Colour scheme:green text = latest stable version, red text = development or beta version. The function determining beta versions is not 100% reliable due to a wide variety of versioning schemes.
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Reader Ratings
Reader supplied reviews for Q4OS
Average rating
8.7
from 165 review(s) Please specify which version of the distribtion you are reviewing. Please select a rating in the range of 1-10. Please write at least a few sentences about the distribution while limiting your review to 4080 characters.
If you want Debian with KDE Plasma on top (in my humble opinion the best combination of the linux world) then look no further because Q4OS nails it perfectly.
It installs very fast and hasslefree on every machine that I own, it runs smooth as silk, and it stays out of the way.
You can even choose if you want to install a minimal Plasma or middleweight or a heavyweight with many apps.
Kudos to the team, you nailed it.
Love the Trinity Edition as well.
Perfect for stone age laptops.
10/10.
A fine product.
Already paypaled donation.
Version: 5.8 Rating: 10 Date: 2025-05-01 Votes: 2
Installed the newest Q4OS (5.8) just this morning to see where it is now. Basic Plasma 64 bit install on an Asus junk laptop with 17" HD+, Celeron N3060 (!!!), a 180 GB Intel SATA 2 (!) SSD, and 8 GB of single channel RAM. The install process was a bit slow, but that was expected. this laptop is really not a fast one. Then some stuff like MM codecs and Chrome browser from the shop, zram-tools (for zram swap) and intel-gpu-tools (to see if the Braswell igpu is doing its job, it is) from the repos. I'm writing this short note on it, in the fifth tab of Chrome. Other four tabs are Netflix, Spotify, Youtube and a local newspaper, all streaming except the newspaper and this page. I can pretty niftly change tabs by ctrl-tabbing and they all work. That should be enough for a review. I gave 10 points by my first impression. Let's say I prefer very much using this one to low end chromebooks. This is good for what they are good for, nothing much more.
There have been some installing problems in previous versions but I met none of those this time. The most impressive thing is that this puny laptop can actually be useful. I bought it for coins, just because of the charger and nice matte 1600 x 900 panel. I noticed there was actually nothing wrong or broken, except that it only had an almost dead and slow spinning disc and just 2 GB of RAM. Either of them is no good with Windows 10. So, I decided to give it a go. I swapped the RAM (just one slot) and the disk, did some settings in BIOS and installed Q4OS.
If you have a similar setup note that I have 8 GB of RAM, and with less RAM or a slower CPU (there are some!) I think maybe three simultaneous streams could be too much. The pretty Vulkan cube also works. I'm not expecting too much from the gaming front but I'll see.