What's the advantage of Kali Linux?

[Trenix25]

Kali is security testing orieneted yes but NOT security orieneted distro itself.
Kali is pretty much insecure IMO to use for everyday life and not even measurable to debian's security.

Ok, given that Debian is such a mess, what Linux distribution would you suggest I switch to that would be considerably more secure than both Debian and Kali?

I recently created a new user account and set it up. I use KDE5 for the GUI and the icons were pathetic. The older accounts were created when I was still running Debian 10 and KDE5. That was long ago. It seems like the more I update Debian the worse it gets, for the most part. I'm looking for something Debian based, but not Debian itself.

Signed,

Matthew Campbell

 

[CaffeineAddict]

Ok, given that Debian is such a mess, what Linux distribution would you suggest I switch to that would be considerably more secure than both Debian and Kali?

I'm debian user and I consider it the most secure out of the box, but for more security additional work is needed by you or any user.

The older accounts were created when I was still running Debian 10 and KDE5. That was long ago. It seems like the more I update Debian the worse it gets, for the most part.

That might be your problem that you're upgrading instead of clean installing Debian 12.
I don't know how well you maintain your system but if it only gets worse then consider clean install of latest Debian which is 12.

 

[Brickwizard]

Note to Brickwizard: I don't need to be scolded for asking a simple question.

I am making the point, apart from a very few of us, nobody reads the documentation supplied with a distribution which should tell you all you need to know.
Now clean sheet
additional information supplied by you

I need to find a security oriented Linux distribution that I can use every day

There are around 12 pen-testing [security] distributions, all of them are designed with the same target , and one only, that is professional security testing, ALL of these distributions will expect anyone installing them to be Linux experienced and terminal competent, they are not designed to be everyday desktop Linux builds,. Adding non-approved apps can [and often dose] brick computers?..

If you are confusing personal security with security testing, some of those considderd more secure as desktop linux for daily use are [in no particular order]

Parrot HOME edition
Tails
Qubes
MX-Linux
Kodachi
Pure OS
but please make sure you fully read all documentation [link is usually on the distribution download page]

 

[Brickwizard]

Oh forgot to say most have a Debian base [some testing some LTS]

 

[osprey]

@Trenix25 wrote:

Ok, given that Debian is such a mess, what Linux distribution would you suggest I switch to that would be considerably more secure than both Debian and Kali?

Poor debian, to be characterised in such derogatory terms

Computer security is not distribution dependent in linux. Whilst there are distros that concentrate on being secure, such a Qubes and Tails, the nature of linux is that virtually any installation can make use of the same means to become as secure as the user wishes. I expect that's well understood, but make the point anyway. If a user wants to jump straight into a secure distro where a lot of the security software already exists, then that option is available. Sites like this one can help in that respect:

Best Linux distro for privacy and security of 2024

Fortify your Linux install with the best Linux distros for privacy and security

www.techradar.com

In relation to debian, there's a manual to help with making the default installation more secure here:

https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/securing-debian-manual/securing-debian-manual.en.pdf

Achieving any level of security is really a matter of the degree to which the user wishes to accomplish their objectives in the matter.

 

[f33dm3bits]

 

[Trenix25]

One of the things I've noticed about Kali Linux is the frequent updates. They just gave me a new kernel this morning, and then more stuff this evening. My goodness, I'll be spending every day making backups and scanning everything. This might just become a sysadmin nightmare. Maybe if I only try to update once a week instead... Adopting a new kernel involves a couple of days of work under normal circumstances. Running this on a VM is risky though. I can't boot the VM from a flash drive to perform maintenance on the main system.

At least Kali is loaded with cybersecurity software, which is certainly interesting.

I do thank everyone that chimed in. I was seeking opinions from the people here that may have had personal experience using Kali Linux rather than just the sales pitch from its developers. The docs only go so far. I was really looking for opinions from users of Kali Linux. So far it seems to have most everything I need, though I'll still need to grab some extra fonts. I didn't see Vera Sans in LibreOffice, or the calligraphy font that I like. After watching that 25 minute review I've found that I really don't like Gnome. I really don't like Xfce either. I'll have to set up sshd in Kali to switch to KDE instead.

I've been using scp to copy files back and forth between the host and guest OS.

Signed,

Matthew Campbell

 

[CaffeineAddict]

After watching that 25 minute review I've found that I really don't like Gnome. I really don't like Xfce either. I'll have to set up sshd in Kali to switch to KDE instead.

There is also Kali NetInstaller ISO with minimal setup which let's you choose which desktop and additional software if any gets installed during installation.

I would personally choose that ISO for installment to avoid bloat and to choose different desktop.

 

[Brickwizard]

One of the things I've noticed about Kali Linux is the frequent updates. They just gave me a new kernel this morning, and then more stuff this evening.

I get the same on Parrot, it is the Bain of using a rolling [Debian testing] distribution, instead of a LTS one

 

[dcbrown73]

I'm sure I'm about to repeat what others have said, but...

Kali Linux is a tool. I do not recommend it as your daily desktop.

This is like buying a dump truck for your daily errands. If you need a dump truck, buy one. Though you probably still want your sedan / pickup for daily commuting around town.

 

[Trenix25]

I'm sure I'm about to repeat what others have said, but...

Kali Linux is a tool. I do not recommend it as your daily desktop.

This is like buying a dump truck for your daily errands. If you need a dump truck, buy one. Though you probably still want your sedan / pickup for daily commuting around town.

I really don't mind flying my fighter jet to the grocery store. It could be a problem that I'll need more than one parking space, and arrival and departure could be a little noisy. I've noticed that Kali basically has all the same games that Debian has, except for Endless Sky, which Debian 11 can't even build. (Sigh) It offers over 12 GB of games. I read somewhere that Kali basically has next to nothing for games. Kali sure uses more network data than Debian, due to updating the repository list and downloading the updates themselves. I guess I won't get great fuel economy in that fighter jet.

The thing is, I can't update Debian anymore. It's stuck. I tried to upgrade to Debian 12, but the activity crashed and left me with a broken system. I had to restore Debian 11.7 from a backup. I really don't think trying the same thing over again would be helpful and I'm not willing to give up certain programs that I need that are not present in a pure Debian 12 system. So the choice is this: switch to something else or stay stuck forever. Kali doesn't offer Endless Sky directly, but I have downloaded the source from GitHub, and can't even build it on Debian. It looks like Kali offers everything else I need or could even want though. I just hope I will have enough hard drive space for all of that extra pentesting stuff that I'll want to add. I'm sitting at 14% for my root file system in Debian right now. That file system uses 250 GB. I have 14 different file systems, each in different partitions. I'm using a 4 TB Western Digital USB hard drive. The backup and web partitions each use 1 TB. I am currently using the premade virtual machine package from Kali Linux. That only offers about 80 GB of hard drive space and only in one partition. I might have to download the actual ISO and install it that way to give myself more space.

Signed,

Matthew Campbell

 

[Condobloke]

I'm looking for something Debian based, but not Debian itself.

LMDE 6

 

[Brickwizard]

I'm looking for something Debian based, but not Debian itself.

you could try
MX-AHS

 

[Terminal Velocity]

I use Debian 11 since 11.1 now it is at 11.9. I never had to do anything to maintain it, it works flawlessly since day 1 and it will be supported till mid 2026

 

[Trenix25]

For all of Kali rolling's effort to keep everything updated I find this amazing: I just downloaded Metasploit 6.4.14 this morning for Debian straight from 1rapid7 and then Kali offered me Metasploit 6.4.12 to replace 6.4.9 just minutes later. Kali might be like a month behind. That's just embarrassing. I wonder if there's a way to copy the .desktop file and the icon and then uninstall Metasploit from Kali, without purging, and then add it from 1rapid7. Then I could add the edited .desktop file and the icon. The Kali docs say not to add other repos because it "could" screw up the Kali system, but this is Metasploit which is supposed to be there. Perhaps if I added the 1rapid7 repo before the Kali repo in the sources.list. Thoughts on this?

Signed,

Matthew Campbell

 

[Priest_Apostate]

I just want to get away from Debian because it's a buggy mess.

I'm curious (seriously - no shade intended): what do you find buggy about Debian? I ask because I'm using it on my laptop, and haven't run into any issues (at least, none that didn't begin from me futzing around with it)...

 

[f33dm3bits]

I'm curious (seriously - no shade intended): what do you find buggy about Debian?

I'm curious as well. Debian is known to be stable for server and desktop systems.

 

[AlphaObeisance]

In short. It's got KDE and cute little dragon wallpapers built in

 

[KGIII]

Moved to the Kali sub-forum.

 

[Trenix25]

I'm curious (seriously - no shade intended): what do you find buggy about Debian? I ask because I'm using it on my laptop, and haven't run into any issues (at least, none that didn't begin from me futzing around with it)...

aide crashes if I don't exclude certain system directories. It always crashes with an error, but at least gives me the daily report. aide can literally lock up the whole system if I let it check everything. badblocks doesn't work when I use it with mke2fs, whether for the read-only test, or the read-write test. It locks up after a while and causes major problems. Even when I'm running from a flash drive it has the same problem. Obviously a file system cannot be mounted when I'm still trying to create it. vi doesn't work in Debian 11, but used to in Debian 10. Just try using input in Debian 11 and it will freak out. I tried to upgrade from Debian 11.7 to Debian 12 when 11.7 was at the top of Debian 11 and the whole thing fell apart. I had to restore Debian 11.7 from a backup.

For a while I was even having trouble with the hard drive integrity. I was getting driver errors if I tried to do much of anything while aide was running. I even lost a number of gigabytes of data from my backup file system that way and had to restore it. That problem has remissed.

Other bugs may exist, but not be remembered at this moment.

Signed,

Matthew Campbell