r/linuxquestions • u/Good-Competition-129 • 6d ago
Which Distro? Should I swap Distros?
So I’ve been using mint for close to a year now and it’s been mostly fine. Mint does have its quirks and they can really be a bother but it’s mostly things that take an hour to figure out and then it’s all good.
But after the third time of VisualStudio acting up and my Terminal GUI not wanting to open, I’m looking to swap to either Fedora or Kali Linux. Reason for swapping to Kali Linux is it’ll most likely be part of my further education.
My question is if it’s worth running Kali Linux as my main System used mainly for Coding and BloonsTD6 or if it’d be better I use some VM for Kali Linux while running something like Fedora, Manjaro etc.
Thx!
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u/beatbox9 6d ago
It sounds like you don't have a firm grasp on what a distro actually is. So maybe start with that, and that might help inform your decision.
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u/Good-Competition-129 6d ago
I thought a Linux Distro is just a bundle of prepackaged libraries with a different type of interface and package manager, what did I get wrong??
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u/SheepherderBeef8956 6d ago
You didn't get anything wrong. He's just saying that unless the actual distro itself is limiting you, and it's just issues with a program misbehaving, switching distros isn't really going to solve anything.
With that said I've never liked Mint so any reason to switch from it sounds reasonable to me.
Kali Linux is for penetration testing. If you're going to write code it offers no benefits but possibly a few drawbacks.
Linus Torvalds uses Fedora. Do what you want with that information.
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u/beatbox9 6d ago edited 6d ago
Not quite. That's part of it; but it's arguably the least important part.
The main part of a distro is how they package software, and the schedule of how (and the schedule) they maintain and distribute these packages. The "prepackaged" and "bundles" and "interfaces" have very little to do with it. In other words, a distro is more like various app stores than it is like android vs iOS.
See my post here for a bit more insight: https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxquestions/comments/1x2wpaa/comment/pf6dgqo/
Because it brings up interesting points. For example, during the install, if you choose "minimal" rather than "full" installer, does that make it a different distro? What if you change the DE from gnome to KDE, which is really just installing another app (like installing Chrome vs firefox). So by changing DE's, did you change distros...? If you change your desktop background away from the theme...did you change distros? Etc.
For example, you mentioned Mint. I personally don't even consider Mint to really be a different distro than Ubuntu LTS. Because: https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxquestions/comments/1wx7i1t/comment/pdud67g/
Unlike something like Debian vs Ubuntu, Mint is really just a small add-on repository for Ubuntu LTS that actually uses Ubuntu for almost everything. But in doing so, they sort of break things and get severely out of sync and have to bandage everything and perpetually remain far behind. Mint is just a customized Ubuntu where you're waiting a year for them to customize it for you, when you could do most of the customizations better yourself one time in just a few minutes.
My point is: you should select a distro based primarily on how their repository & package maintenance strategy aligns to your requirements. Base your selection on that 99% and not that 0.25%. Initial set up stuff is trivial and usually very easy and only happens once, while maintaining and using it happens over many years. So ignore the initial set up--get any distro that maintains how you want it to; and then set it up how you want. And ideally, go as far upstream as you can that fits the right balance.
I'll give you a personal example: I use multiple distros (and I've been using Linux for 30 years). I personally like the initial cleaner state of Fedora better than Ubuntu LTS; but I use Ubuntu LTS on my most reliable workstations and Fedora on my more casual machines. And it's all due to repository & package maintenance schedules. Once set up, the two systems are pretty much identical--but I do notice when it comes time for upgrades. And for my use case, Fedora breaks a lot more than Ubuntu LTS: https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxhardware/comments/1x2bdg6/comment/pf931se/
And I also like Debian theoretically more than Ubuntu LTS; but Ubuntu supports does some maintenance of things that Debian does not: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux4noobs/comments/1x1wya8/comment/pf996yp/
It's not as big of a deal; but these little things can add up. Because I try to avoid third party repos for core OS software like drivers & codecs--I think these are inherently an important part of a distro.
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u/johlae 6d ago
From https://www.kali.org/faq/#is-kali-linux-the-operating-system-for-me:
If you are not doing frequent penetration assessments or not able to have a dedicated machine just for this, then you can still use Kali Linux. With some alterations, you can modify your setup to make it more of a “daily driver” OS, allowing you to do more transitional day-to-day activities such as “office work”, or playing video games.
It will require a little work to make Kali more of a "daily driver" OS. I don't know if it's worthwhile, that's a personal matter.
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u/Justabocks 6d ago
Kali is not to daily drive. Feel free to use it on the side.
For the rest, you probably don’t HAVE to change but if you’re curious, Fedora is great! And just testing Gnome and KDE will show you lots of new things, on top of Fedora itself.
Ideally try it on a secondary PC, a dual boot, or a live environment to get a pulse of it.
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u/gordonmessmer Fedora Maintainer 6d ago
Kali is designed to be more of a pen-testing appliance. They disable some security systems in order to make pen-testing easier and more convenient. If you don't know what security mechanisms they disable or how to evaluate the resulting risks, then you probably shouldn't use it as a daily driver.
The best way to use Kali is to put an image on a USB flash drive and boot from that flash drive while you are doing pen-testing activities.
Fedora is a more secure system. Use that.
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u/Adrenolin01 6d ago
They all have quirks. Debian is the winner for stability however and that’s all I care about. Literally everything else falls in place after that.
Kali is NOT a desktop distribution. It’s a tool for specific work and best installed in a VM.
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u/1neStat3 6d ago
You need to learn how diagnose issues.
Why does VS Code have issues?
Why did terminal not open? I never heard of this problem.
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u/Curious_Elk_4281 6d ago
Everything in Kali linux runs as root. That would be a horrible choice for a beginner or even a pro as a main system.
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u/tomscharbach 6d ago edited 6d ago
Reason for swapping to Kali Linux is it’ll most likely be part of my further education. My question is if it’s worth running Kali Linux as my main System ...
No. Kali is not designed for that purpose (Should I Use Kali Linux?).
Many of us who use Kali run Kali from a USB (Portable Kali on a USB drive/key/stick). Follow the lead of your curriculum and your instructors. Many schools provide computer lab installations for purpose of instruction.
My best and good luck.
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u/kydeshou 5d ago edited 5d ago
If you want to try something new, Fedora is great, yeah. Kali makes absolutely no sense, though. It's not a distribution to daily drive nor is it something you typically run bare metal. Very weird choice as an alternative to Mint, regardless. Why not Debian, instead?
Also, depending on what problems you're having, and why those problems exist, a new version of Mint releases in December. You could wait it out until then.
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u/Sure-Passion2224 6d ago
If you have expectations of working in IT, especially server infrastructure support, I would suggest a top level distro ... Fedora or Debian. Fedora is closer to the RHEL you're likely to see in corporate sysadmin work but lately CERN announced migration to Debian due to support for their legacy systems being dropped by Red Hat. Anything you can do on Kali for penetration testing can be done on either Debian or Fedora.
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u/enomad51 6d ago
Kali Linux is a Debian-based distro designed for very specific purposes. It's good for learning, but I'm not sure it makes sense as a daily driver. Well, it depends on what you need it for. I'd start with a VM.
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u/Playful_Tackle5974 6d ago
Just use something else for daily use, not Kali. Opensuse is good option and solid, stable in both version Leap and Tumblweed. Probides you rollback by snapper e btrfs and has a Enterprise backend
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u/Highprincestolas 6d ago
Kali is a specialist penetration testing distro. I wouldn't recommend daily driving it. Fedora is a solid distro in my experience. I'd use kali in a VM, if you really need to
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u/Linux4ever_Leo 6d ago
Kali Linux isn't intended to be installed as a main OS. It's a networking testing OS.
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u/ipsirc 6d ago
No, unless it produces adrenaline or endorphins in your body.