Q4OS

Reader supplied reviews for Q4OS Average rating 8.7 from 192 review(s) What are your thoughts on Q4OS? Please include a few pros and a few cons, along with your overall impression of the operating system. Our FAQ page has tips on writing a good mini-review. Version: -- 7.0-testing6.55.84.123.162.71.8.80.5.29 Rating:    -- 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 out of 10 Your review (minimum 250 words): Past reviews - sort by: DateVotes Version: 6.5 Rating: 10 Date: 2026-02-04 Votes: 2 I put my whole family on Q40S, five people with six laptops - age range from 8 to 86. Linux had been on my list of things to explore for quite a while with an old ASUS 17'' laptop that stoped working under Windows 10 a couple of years ago to the extreme discontent of one of my users. I had three machines in my set that could not be uptdated to Windows 11 and wanted to see my boys playing with computers rather than mobile phones. Computing is my daily work, though in a Windows environment. The jungle of Linux distros confused me initially, and my first pick was a mnistake with a peculiar desktop and a hostile installation process. The mistake told me more about my personal requirements: 1. I needed a distro that also had a 32bit version for an old computer which I still want to bring to live later. 2. Debian 13 was my choice for the linux kernel with broad community support, in case I should need help. 3. KDE plasma was the desktop that promised an easy transition for my users. 4. I needed a leightweight distro particularily designed for old machines Q4OS was the distro that fulfilled all four requirements. Installing Q4OS unspectacular (I confess I struggled with two computers that were hiding the USB booting; ChatGPT helped me with the bios arrangements - but that is not a Linux issue). I felt safe once the Q4OS isnstallation was showing up. It recognised the hardware components of the six machines. Screen configuration was comfortable. The cool KDE Plasma version that comes with the package is extremely organised. I have installed Windows and Android on hardware before - here I usually spent hours on disabeling functionalities and removing programs which I do not want to have. Q4OS was a relaxing experience: totally unobstrusive. The basic configuration has all the programs I would have wanted on all six machines. I could focus on components the particular users would want to have. There are two software centres (one by Q4OS) that offer flat pack installations for programs like Kdenlive or Gimp. The KDE Plasma user interface is superbly customisable. Things I was missing on Windows 11 are all standards on KDE Plasma. My people had no problems in switching. The 8 year old understands how this is organised. My 12 year old did not like the KDE standard design. I showed him the wealth of configurations that are available through the KDE community. Q4OS has a "look switcher" which allows the fast change between complete design sets and here the 12 year old marvelled about desktops that threw him back in the era before he was born. He is presently in love with a Windows-XP look-alike thatv turns his computer into 2001 relic a time traveler would want to have. He is primarily playing Minecraft with his younger brother and listening to YouTube music through his bluetooth boxes, all without issues. Libre Office is a standard in his school. All six installations have been running without breakdowns for the past three months. My experienced users said that the switch brough silence into their lives. Old machines are working better than ever. Q4OS is an invitation for Linux novices thanks to KDE and otherwise a perfect alternative for anyone used to Windows. Very reliable so far. Was this review helpful? Yes No Version: 6.5 Rating: 10 Date: 2026-01-26 Votes: 0 I've tried a few linux distro over the years and always seemed to come unstuck with some component of it early on. I figured I needed to stick at one long enough to get used to it. I tried a dual boot on my work computer with a different dstro but slowly used it less and less to the point that I don't use it anymore. The kids needed new computers for school so I thought I'd try and find a light weight linux distro to install on their old computers. In my search and fortunately the second install was Q4OS using KDE Plasma and I love it. It runs smoothly and quickly on these old laptops, and the way the system works makes sense to me. The app store is good, the software that came with it is all that is needed for a basic home computer used for browsing the web, watching some videos, using email, and creating documents. I've been able to get the printer working and paired bluetooth devices easily enough I'm thinking of learning Bleder on it to see how it handles that and doing some video editing also. Obviously I don't expect it to do either of these very well give its low specs but a brief look at Blender and it did better than I thought it would I will be installing Q4OS on my work computer as the dual boot option replacing (Ubuntu I think) the distro I have currently. Previously Windows was getting bogged down. I mean they were sub $1000 AUD computers six years ago, so they weren't highly speced. They run a 4 core Pentium N5000 CPU @ 1.1GHZ with 4GB Ram and 128GB SSD So a really solid thumbs up from me. I think I would have the confidence of giving it to my elderly parents to use. Was this review helpful? Yes No Version: 6.5 Rating: 10 Date: 2026-01-17 Votes: 4 What can I say about this distribution? I tried Q4OS a year ago, but found it to be just a basic Debian distribution. Two months ago, I tested it again and discovered the genuine Q4OS tools. It's truly impressive what it can do. The most hilarious are Windows style installers, they make Linux incredibly Windowish. This should appeal to Windows users, as it will increase their trust in this distribution. There are more draws on the scene, for example Windows like themes. These themes make Linux better, faster, more secure Windows clone. Do you want to clone your running Q4OS and run it live from USB memory stick? No problem, s4-snapshot does this job. And how do you install s4-snapshot? Easy, with the Windows-like installer :))) Q4OS is also incredibly lightweight and not bloated. I must give 10 out of 10. This distribution is a fun but well-thought-out compilation based on Debian. I really like it and would recommend it to everyone. Q4OS is worth trying :) You'll be amazed :) Was this review helpful? Yes No See all 192 reader reviews of Q4OS...