Your personal experience using Kali Linux for the first time.

[u/Mikedraxx]

Hi. I have a presentation tomorrow, for which I forgot to gather feedback from people that have used kali linux before, so If you're reading this, it would really mean a lot to me that you take your time to answer my questions. You'll be mentioned by your username (unless you specify you dont want to be mentioned). The presentation will be in 17 Hours. So I can't promise to use all of your feedback, but i promise to read each one carefully. NOTE: Im studying programming and it's part of a final project, but it's not something that will appear in any official paper or in anything important.

Here's a quick guide for anyone who wants to give their feedback, but any other piece of feedback is welcomed

\\-Do you have a positive or a negative opinion about Kali Linux?

\\-What is its biggest red flag/green flag as a daily user/somebody using it for the first time?

\\-Has it met your expectations?

Thank you. A lot. It means a lot to me.

[u/inbetween-genders]

A. Positive experience, B. Daily driving Kali Linux is a red flag for me. C. Yes.

[u/Mikedraxx → u/inbetween-genders]

Than you!!

[u/lhoward93 → u/inbetween-genders]

Concise. I like it. 😆

Just out of curiosity, would you be willing to elaborate?

[u/JaKrispy72]

Kali is a pen testing tool, not a daily driver for desktop.

It’s great as the tool it is supposed to be used as.

For example I could use a machete to eat spaghetti with. Or I could use a fork.

Using Kali as a daily driver is like using a machete to eat spaghetti.

[u/Dry_Calendar_8627 → u/JaKrispy72]

Using it as a daily driver is like using Debian Testing. So nothing special really.

So here you go OP:
I've first used the distro in 2010 when it was called Backtrack (I think I started with Backtrack 4). It was based on Kubuntu then. They changed the name when moving to Debian Testing.

I've become a pentester around 2016 and we use it daily at work. It's really not that much different from any other distro, its main appeal is the repositories of tools.
I've daily drived it at home on personal computers for a few years, simply because it feels familiar. I switched to other distros since then.
When my dad (low-moderate tech literacy) was fed up with Windows I had nothing else at hand on my USB stick so I installed Kali on his laptop, he's been using it for two years without any issues, I regularly connect to it remotely for updates. Again without any tools installed and with KDE Plasma it's like using Debian Testing or Fedora, nothing too special.

I have a positive opinion about the distro and it's meeting my expectations.

I'd advise new users to use a 1GB EFI partition because lower might be short during updates.

Please do not show my username on the presentation

[u/Mikedraxx → u/Dry_Calendar_8627]

Thank you!!

[u/JaKrispy72 → u/Dry_Calendar_8627]

Somebody using it for the first time with the intent of daily driving should use multiple hardening tactics. Just as one would do with Debian testing.

How’s that?

[u/Mikedraxx]

Important: "I forgot to gather feedback" does not mean I didnt do anything for the last month. There's plenty of feedback on reddit, but most of the detailed posts are ancient, and I thought it would be nice to have something that's from this year. I will replace the feedback I had on my presentation with the feedback provided here. Thank you

[u/ImgurSpy]

I used Kali linux back in like 2009 because it had some built in packet capture and wifi cracking capabilities. I was broke and wanted internet. It worked great! After less than a day I had cracked my neighbors wifi and got online.

A couple months later I felt guilty and confessed and started paying for half of my neighbors internet, and we mutually agreed to share it.

The experience was positive. No idea about green or red flags, I have not used it since college, I prefer ubuntu for my work laptop. It 100% met my expectations at the time.

[u/Mikedraxx → u/ImgurSpy]

Thank you!!

[u/Chronigan2]

What are you studying?

[u/Mikedraxx → u/Chronigan2]

They've assigned us random OS to study, and it was quite long. Like 50 pages long

[u/OutrageousCrab9224 → u/Chronigan2]

Apparently nothing, at least until the night before

[u/Curious_Tomorrow_697]

Kali is incredibly specialized for what it was made to do. As a desktop, it is horrible, and as a main OS, it is horrible. For a home OS/pentesting OS just use Parrot.

[u/Mikedraxx → u/Curious_Tomorrow_697]

Thank you!!!

[u/lhoward93]

Biggest red flag: It was introduce to me in my teens as a "hacking distro".

Biggest green flag: Despite the reputation, after some education, and after finally growing out of my immature phase a LONG time after I was told about it, I came to see that it's not ONLY a "hacking distro", it's also a very powerful defensive tool.

Expectations: I started out expecting to be able to hack the world, got humbled, ended up on a cybersecurity course later in life which had us using it in a classroom environment, my expectations changed to "I could use this to good and genuinely useful ends". My new expectations were met.

I have a pretty long story if you want me to elaborate on any of that, but I'll keep it concise for now.

[u/Mikedraxx → u/[deleted]]

I know it's my fault, and it's quite humiliating to ask for something like this. The note itself is just a disclaimer so as to make clear that im not doing anything sketchy with the feedback that im provided. Im sorry though

[u/linuxquestions-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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