With alarming frequency I see posts on this subreddit involving

Question

With alarming frequency I see posts on this subreddit involving

relatively basic troubleshooting questions from users running Kali Linux. I wrote this as a response to that. I think Kali Linux is great. I just don't think everybody should be using it as a desktop OS.

The TL;DR for this post could be taken straight from the Kali FAQ: "If you are unfamiliar with Linux generally, if you do not have at least a basic level of competence in administering a system, if you are looking for a Linux distribution to use as a learning tool to get to know your way around Linux, or if you want a distro that you can use as a general purpose desktop installation, Kali Linux is probably not what you are looking for."

Dear Linux noobs,

Linux is cool. You're interested in Linux and that makes you cool too. You should be proud of your interest in Linux. You're now part of a community that is full of cool people (OK, a few of us are jerks, but what can you do).

What else is cool? Computer hacking. Password cracking. Network penetration. These things are neat, and the people who can do them are usually pretty cool too (though some of them are jerks too). Learning to do Tobias🐾:
With alarmin things is fun, and if you want to do it, you should. When practiced responsibly, these things can make fun hobbies, or even a lucrative career. The purpose of this post is not to discourage anybody from learning to do these things.

One of the major problems new Linux users face when starting out is figuring out which Linux distribution is right for them. There are a lot of options after all. Everybody likes to recommend their favorite distro (and also occasionally give their opinion on their least favorite distro). Very frequently I see questions in this subreddit, and in related subreddits, like "What distro should I use?", "I want to learn to code, what distro would be good for me?", "What is the best distro for python programming?", or "What distro should I use to learn penetration testing?". New Linux users who might be interested in penetration testing (or some other related topic) might, by some means or another, discover Kali Linux. They might think "Hey, I want to learn Linux and also pen-testing! I should use Kali Linux." They'd probably be wrong.

The thing is, most desktop distributions provide access to the same software. If you want to watch Youtube videos and write email, Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, etc, are all equally capable of that. If you want to learn python programming, you can do that on any of those distributions. Similarly, if you want to learn pen-testing, you can do it from any of those distributions.

Kali Linux is a distribution specifically designed to be a toolkit for professional pen-testers. As such, it might be very attractive to new Linux users who are interested in security. However, Kali is /not/ designed as a general purpose Linux distro. Some elements of it's design are simply not suited for use as a general purpose desktop. If you're a new Linux user who installs Kali Linux chances are you will have a frustrating experience. The Kali Linux maintainers even have a FAQ page "Is Kali Linux right for me?"

http://docs.kali.org/introduction/should-i-use-kali-linux

Please read that article before deciding to use Kali as a desktop OS, especially if you're new to Linux. If you don't yet understand some of the points questionmade in that article that's probably a sign to avoid Kali for now.

It's quite often that I see people asking questions like "How do I do X in Kali Linux?" or "[Kali] Y is not working. Please help." Unfortunately these users don't usually get the help they need, which makes me sad. The posts are often dismissed or downvoted. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I'd wager that most of the people asking these questions don't need Kali. They need a desktop distribution.

I am worried that if your first adventures with Linux are in Kali you will have a frustrating experience and be turned off from the whole endeavotr. Your questions might be dismissed and left unanswered because you appear to be in over your head

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26.04.2017

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Rubén Marrero · Accepted Answer

Rubén Marrero

Write a telegra.ph post

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26.04.2017

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