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Kali Linux

247
371
+ 1
25
Linux Mint

279
381
+ 1
69
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Kali Linux vs Linux Mint: What are the differences?

Key Differences between Kali Linux and Linux Mint

  1. Purpose: Kali Linux is primarily designed for penetration testing and ethical hacking purposes, providing a wide range of pre-installed security tools and utilities. On the other hand, Linux Mint is a user-friendly distribution focused on offering a smooth desktop experience for general users.
  2. Target Users: Kali Linux is aimed at security professionals, network administrators, and individuals involved in cybersecurity, who require advanced testing and analysis tools. Meanwhile, Linux Mint caters to a broader audience, including regular desktop users, students, and beginners in the Linux ecosystem.
  3. Interface: Kali Linux has a more minimalistic and command-line-oriented interface, emphasizing functionality over aesthetics. Conversely, Linux Mint offers a visually appealing desktop environment with a customizable user interface, providing a more traditional and intuitive experience.
  4. Preinstalled Software: Kali Linux comes with a vast array of pre-installed security tools and packages, enabling users to quickly perform various security assessments and penetration testing tasks. On the other hand, Linux Mint focuses more on essential applications, offering a more general-purpose set of software for everyday computing needs.
  5. Updates and Stability: Kali Linux follows a rolling release model, meaning it constantly receives updates with the latest software versions. This approach provides cutting-edge tools but may lead to occasional instability. In contrast, Linux Mint follows a fixed release model, offering a more stable and predictable system environment with less frequent updates.
  6. Community Support: Both Kali Linux and Linux Mint have active communities providing support and assistance. Kali Linux, being a specialized distribution, has a more dedicated community focused on security-related discussions, while Linux Mint has a broader user base, offering help for various troubleshooting and general Linux queries.

In summary, Kali Linux is a specialized distribution for security professionals, focusing on penetration testing and hacking tools, while Linux Mint provides a user-friendly desktop experience for a broader range of users with a more stable and traditional software selection.

Decisions about Kali Linux and Linux Mint

I liked manjaro a lot, the huge support it has and the variety of tools it provides is just awesome. But due to its parent platform being Arch Linux it has bleeding-edge technology and that meaning, we get updated 'daily', and if we keep updating the system daily, due to the bugs in the recent updates the system sometimes used to crash, this made the OS really unstable. However, one can avoid such crashes using periodical and careful system/package updates. I now use LinuxMint which is based on Ubuntu, and this OS is completely stable with reliable(mostly tested) updates. And, since this OS is backed up by UBUNTU the concerns/questions one can encounter while using the OS can be easily rectified using the UBUNTU community, which is pretty good. Though this is backed up on UBUNTU it most certainly does NOT include the proprietary stuff of UBUNTU, which is on the bright side of the OS. That's it! Happy Computing.

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Pros of Kali Linux
Pros of Linux Mint
  • 8
    Penetration testing tools are pre-installed
  • 8
    Has many penetration testing tools
  • 5
    Runs on both x86 and ARM platforms
  • 3
    Its just debian so it has better support
  • 1
    There's no restrictions
  • 15
    Simple, Fast, Comfort and Easy to Use
  • 14
    Stable
  • 12
    Elegant
  • 11
    Good for beginners
  • 10
    Free to use
  • 3
    Out of the box
  • 3
    Reliable
  • 1
    Good software support

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Cons of Kali Linux
Cons of Linux Mint
  • 3
    Wireless driver issues on some systems
  • 3
    Packages are too large in size as compare to alpine
  • 3
    Outdated versions of common packages
  • 2
    Root GUI setup is a potential security hole
  • 3
    Easy to mess up with a few settings (like the panel)
  • 2
    Security breaches
  • 1
    Idiots can break it because it is open source

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What is Kali Linux?

It is a Debian-based Linux distribution aimed at advanced Penetration Testing and Security Auditing. It contains several hundred tools which are geared towards various information security tasks, such as Penetration Testing, Security research, Computer Forensics and Reverse Engineering.

What is Linux Mint?

The purpose of Linux Mint is to produce a modern, elegant and comfortable operating system which is both powerful and easy to use.

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What companies use Kali Linux?
What companies use Linux Mint?
See which teams inside your own company are using Kali Linux or Linux Mint.
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What tools integrate with Kali Linux?
What tools integrate with Linux Mint?
What are some alternatives to Kali Linux and Linux Mint?
Ubuntu
Ubuntu is an ancient African word meaning ‘humanity to others’. It also means ‘I am what I am because of who we all are’. The Ubuntu operating system brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the world of computers.
Arch Linux
A lightweight and flexible Linux distribution that tries to Keep It Simple.
Linux
A clone of the operating system Unix, written from scratch by Linus Torvalds with assistance from a loosely-knit team of hackers across the Net. It aims towards POSIX and Single UNIX Specification compliance.
Debian
Debian systems currently use the Linux kernel or the FreeBSD kernel. Linux is a piece of software started by Linus Torvalds and supported by thousands of programmers worldwide. FreeBSD is an operating system including a kernel and other software.
CentOS
The CentOS Project is a community-driven free software effort focused on delivering a robust open source ecosystem. For users, we offer a consistent manageable platform that suits a wide variety of deployments. For open source communities, we offer a solid, predictable base to build upon, along with extensive resources to build, test, release, and maintain their code.
See all alternatives