if I follow correctly
you mean rather than just using Qubes vms for everything?
Also, the second laptop should be new and NEVER associated with your identity in any way WHATSOEVER.
Discussion
Yes, for very sentitive situations/activities where anonymity is of the utmost importance.
Qubes is freaking awesome, but I still recommend a 2nd brand new device that has never been associated with your actual identity in any way, including having never logged in from your home network.
This is way overkill for most threat models. For the overwhelming majority of people, Qubes offers more than enough security via isolation and compartmentalization, including the ability to virtually airgap VMs, anti-evil maid, and anonymity via its Whonix integration and so much more--it's leaps and bounds over any other daily driver OS.
However, if you are performing extremely sensitive activities or are in extremely sensitive situations and you must use technology, and the likelihood of hardware forensics is in your threat model, then I recommend taking the isolation and compartmentalization to another level by using a completely separate device with an OS like Tails.
There is still the risk of having that 2nd device in your posession, so this is where an OS like Tails shines since it leaves no trace on the computer when shut down.
the thing i never understood about Tails practically,
you then need a yubikey right? gotta keep your priv key somewhere...
I used Qubes as my daily for a while but i got tired of hacking around withirt.
so now I have several devices instead lol
it was easier to just have a few old laptops/multi boot setups.
forensic analysis isn't in my threat model
but curious
Big fan of Yubikeys. Tails would need persistent storage to use one, but you can airgap keys with Veracrypt + hidden volume.
Here's a fun tutorial for generating and airgapping PGP private keys using GnuPG, Tails and YubiKey :)
Old-school with multiple devices does the job too. How long has it been since you used Qubes? There's been a lot of upgrades recently that have improved the UI/UX just over the past year.
Honestly can't imaging daily-driving anything else at this point unless Joanna builds something cooler, but IMO it's going to be hard for her to top Qubes.
