Linux Distros

Table of Contents

Desktop

These distros are suitable for everyday use. They usually have reasonably up-to-date software and typically come pre-installed with a graphical desktop environment and software that you expect on any personal computer for home or office use.

Ubuntu

Ubuntu is a user-friendly distro aimed at the average desktop user.

https://www.ubuntu.com/

Debian

https://www.debian.org/

Fedora

https://getfedora.org/

Arch

Arch Linux is a binary-based, rolling-release distro aimed at the advanced user.

https://www.archlinux.org/

Gentoo

Gentoo is a source-based, rolling-release distro aimed at the advanced user.

https://www.gentoo.org/

Pentesting

These distros come preinstalled with penetration testing and security analysis tools.

Kali

Kali Linux is the most popular penetration testing operating system. It is built on top of Debian and comes with the Gnome desktop environment by default.

https://www.kali.org/

Blackarch

Blackarch is a repository for Arch Linux which contains additional security tools. You can download an image with everything pre-installed or add the repository to an existing Arch install.

https://blackarch.org/

Fedora Security Lab

Fedora Security Lab is a Fedora-based distro with security tools pre-installed. It comes with the XFCE desktop environment.

https://labs.fedoraproject.org/en/security/

Pentoo

Pentoo is a Gentoo overlay containing ebuilds for additional security tools.

http://www.pentoo.ch/

Server

These distros have well-tested and stable software versions. Since the software versions are often older they are not ideal for desktop use, but they have long support cycles and are unlikely to break unexpectedly.

Ubuntu Server

https://www.ubuntu.com/server/

CentOS

https://www.centos.org/

Debian

https://www.debian.org/