Kali Linux

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Lord Nikon6

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Hi All

The guys from offensive security(the people that created the Backtrack OS) has released a new distro, called Kali Linux. Have any of you given it a try yet, if so, what are your thoughts on it thus far?

http://www.kali.org/downloads/

I was slightly upset when I couldnt find a KDE iso for it, but it could be released later on.
 
Have just started kicking the tyres on this distro. Looks like a good successor to Backtrack - very similar.
 
Looking good. Also moved from Ubuntu base to Debian which is a big thumbs up in my book.
 
So many distro's and it gets confusing. My needs are encryption similar to Windows 7 Ultimate, then to run LibreOffice and Evolution. Chromium browser and a VoIP application, maybe video calls. On a notebook with good performance and excellent battery life. No games or movies. Where is the sweet spot in Linux for this? I'm a novice bit can do some sudo tasks in a root terminal - nothing complicated.
 
reneg8or said:
So many distro's and it gets confusing. My needs are encryption similar to Windows 7 Ultimate, then to run LibreOffice and Evolution. Chromium browser and a VoIP application, maybe video calls. On a notebook with good performance and excellent battery life. No games or movies. Where is the sweet spot in Linux for this? I'm a novice bit can do some sudo tasks in a root terminal - nothing complicated.
Click to expand...

Kali Linux is not ideal for office use. It should be fine if you really want to use it for that purpose, but it is mostly an STD(security testing distribution).

Looking at your requirements, I think mint would be suitable, but as far as I know you already use that. You could always have a look at Mandriva, it's RPM based instead of deb based, and have been focusing on user friendliness since years ago. You could always just look at Debian, it is as stable as you can get, and will provide all the packages you mention above in the repos.

Another nice distro to use would be Opensuse. It has a very decent system management module called Yast. I personally, would not use it, as they have entered into agreements with Microsoft. It can also be a resource hungry distro.
 
Please qualify your statement. Isn't Ubuntu supposed to be a refined build upon the Debian kernel? What advantage does Debian offer over Ubuntu? I am still learning and some education in this respect will be greatly appreciated.
 
Lord Nikon6 said:
Kali Linux is not ideal for office use. It should be fine if you really want to use it for that purpose, but it is mostly an STD(security testing distribution).

Looking at your requirements, I think mint would be suitable, but as far as I know you already use that. You could always have a look at Mandriva, it's RPM based instead of deb based, and have been focusing on user friendliness since years ago. You could always just look at Debian, it is as stable as you can get, and will provide all the packages you mention above in the repos.

Another nice distro to use would be Opensuse. It has a very decent system management module called Yast. I personally, would not use it, as they have entered into agreements with Microsoft. It can also be a resource hungry distro.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. I have tried various distro's including most of what you have mentioned except for Mandriva. Perhaps we get too spoilt for choice and there always seem to be adventure just beyond the horizon. OpenSuSe now suffers from MS? Avoid.
 
reneg8or said:
Please qualify your statement. Isn't Ubuntu supposed to be a refined build upon the Debian kernel? What advantage does Debian offer over Ubuntu? I am still learning and some education in this respect will be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

Yes, Ubuntu is based on the debian kernel, but that doesn't mean it is debian. There are 2 main based distributions, Debian, and RPM(red hat based). Most distributions generally use one of these as a base, with the exception of gentoo and arch. In distros such as Ubuntu, there are many changes and customisation that takes place. Ubuntu has evolved heavily over the past years, and that means they have moved further away from being just a fork of debian.

The advantages of using debian is mostly the stability. Debian has been around for many years, almost since the beginning, and is one of the most stable distributions around, unless you use the rolling release of debian. Depending on what your looking for, debian can be nice for someone who likes simplicity. No weird new bells and whistle, just good, clean linux.
 
reneg8or said:
Thanks for the advice. I have tried various distro's including most of what you have mentioned except for Mandriva. Perhaps we get too spoilt for choice and there always seem to be adventure just beyond the horizon. OpenSuSe now suffers from MS? Avoid.
Click to expand...

Well, OpenSuse is owned by Novell, and Novell are part of some projects with Microsoft, Novell being a partner of Microsoft. At the moment it is not of great concern, but it is possible that Microsoft can stick their fingers into the SUSE project, or even get novell to kill it off.

I agree, I have had a hard time choosing a distribution a few years back. I still cannot totally make up my mind, but that is the beauty of linux. You can also keep your home and configs on different partitions, in order to just install a new distro, and no need to worry for backups and such.
 
Lord Nikon6 said:
Yes, Ubuntu is based on the debian kernel, but that doesn't mean it is debian. There are 2 main based distributions, Debian, and RPM(red hat based). Most distributions generally use one of these as a base, with the exception of gentoo and arch. In distros such as Ubuntu, there are many changes and customisation that takes place. Ubuntu has evolved heavily over the past years, and that means they have moved further away from being just a fork of debian.

The advantages of using debian is mostly the stability. Debian has been around for many years, almost since the beginning, and is one of the most stable distributions around, unless you use the rolling release of debian. Depending on what your looking for, debian can be nice for someone who likes simplicity. No weird new bells and whistle, just good, clean linux.
Click to expand...

I should like Debian then, as I dislike the unnecessary eye-candy. Just want to get my work done. I also prefer using .deb packages for installation. Thanks for the teaching. :)
 
garyc said:
Have just started kicking the tyres on this distro. Looks like a good successor to Backtrack - very similar.
Click to expand...

It does feel quite like backtrack. I haven't used it much quite yet, but I plan to use it thoroughly next week.
 
Lord Nikon6 said:
It does feel quite like backtrack. I haven't used it much quite yet, but I plan to use it thoroughly next week.
Click to expand...

I downloaded Kali a few weeks back and am not quite sure what to think. I've used BT5 previously and thought I'd give Kali a bash. One thing that does irk me is the lack of cml functionality. Is it my imagination or has the /pentest dir disappeared??

My 5 cents worth...
 
kvs379 said:
I downloaded Kali a few weeks back and am not quite sure what to think. I've used BT5 previously and thought I'd give Kali a bash. One thing that does irk me is the lack of cml functionality. Is it my imagination or has the /pentest dir disappeared??

My 5 cents worth...
Click to expand...

I have not noticed it either, but I cannot say for sure before I have spent some more time using it. For now, I think I preferrred backtrack. But I guess i'll know by next week.
 
So, gave this a shot for a while. Seems like a decent successor to Backtrack. I enjoy the forensics mode. A lot of tools available for pretty much everything.
 
reneg8or said:
So many distro's and it gets confusing. My needs are encryption similar to Windows 7 Ultimate, then to run LibreOffice and Evolution. Chromium browser and a VoIP application, maybe video calls. On a notebook with good performance and excellent battery life. No games or movies. Where is the sweet spot in Linux for this? I'm a novice bit can do some sudo tasks in a root terminal - nothing complicated.
Click to expand...

Lubuntu?
 
reneg8or said:
So many distro's and it gets confusing. My needs are encryption similar to Windows 7 Ultimate, then to run LibreOffice and Evolution. Chromium browser and a VoIP application, maybe video calls. On a notebook with good performance and excellent battery life. No games or movies. Where is the sweet spot in Linux for this? I'm a novice bit can do some sudo tasks in a root terminal - nothing complicated.
Click to expand...

How about a Openbox distro? Crunchbang, Madbox, Manjaro Openbox-Lite, Archbang
 
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