Kali Linux vs Ubuntu

Overview

Ubuntu

Stacks80.4K

Followers59.1K

Votes468

Kali Linux

Stacks259

Followers381

Votes25

Kali Linux vs Ubuntu: What are the differences?

<!-- Introduction -->

# Key Differences between Kali Linux and Ubuntu

1. **Objective**: Kali Linux is specifically designed for digital forensics and penetration testing, with built-in tools for these purposes. On the other hand, Ubuntu is a more general-purpose operating system with a focus on ease of use for average users. 
   
2. **Default Applications**: In Kali Linux, the default applications installed are geared towards security testing, such as Wireshark, Aircrack-ng, and Metasploit, while Ubuntu comes with more mainstream applications like LibreOffice, Firefox, and Thunderbird. 

3. **Security Focus**: Kali Linux places a higher priority on security out of the box, with features such as a non-root user model and network services disabled by default. Ubuntu, while still secure, may require additional configuration for enterprise-level security requirements.

4. **Release Cycle**: Ubuntu follows a regular release schedule with new versions every 6 months, focusing on stability and long-term support (LTS) versions every 2 years. In contrast, Kali Linux has rolling releases, meaning users always have the latest tools and updates without the need for major version upgrades.

5. **Community Support**: Ubuntu has a larger user base and community support compared to Kali Linux, making it easier to find solutions to common issues or receive help from other users. Kali Linux, being more specialized, has a smaller but dedicated community focused on security testing.

6. **User Interface**: Ubuntu comes with the GNOME desktop environment by default, providing a modern and user-friendly interface, while Kali Linux uses the lightweight Xfce desktop environment for performance and resource efficiency, catering to its target audience of security professionals.

In Summary, Kali Linux and Ubuntu have distinct differences in their focus, default applications, security measures, release cycles, community support, and user interfaces.

Share your Stack

Help developers discover the tools you use. Get visibility for your team's tech choices and contribute to the community's knowledge.

View Docs

CLI (Node.js)

Manual

Advice on Ubuntu, Kali Linux

Jerome/Zen

Software Engineer

Aug 2, 2020

Decided

Global familiarity, free, widely used, and as a debian distro feels more comfortable when rapidly switching between local macOS and remote command lines.

CentOS does boast quite a few security/stability improvements, however as a RHEL-based distro, differs quite significantly in the command line and suffers from slightly less frequent package updates. (Could be a good or bad thing depending on your use-case and if it is public facing)

271k views271k

Comments

Simon

Developer Advocate at k6 / Load Impact

Mar 7, 2020

Decided

At the moment of the decision, my desktop was the primary place I did work. Due to this, I can't have it blow up on me while I work. While Arch is interesting and powerful, Ubuntu offers (at least for me) a lot more stability and lets me focus on other things than maintaining my own OS installation.

299k views299k

Comments

Govind

Aug 5, 2020

Decided

Ubuntu is much more faster over Windows and helps to get software and other utilities easier and within a short span of time compared to Windows.

Ubuntu helps to get robustness and resiliency over Windows. Ubuntu runs faster than Windows on every computer that I have ever tested. LibreOffice (Ubuntu's default office suite) runs much faster than Microsoft Office on every computer that I have ever tested.

270k views270k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

Ubuntu	Kali Linux
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.	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.
-	Advanced Penetration Testing Distribution; More than 600 penetration testing tools included; FHS compliant; Custom kernel, patched for injection
Statistics
Stacks 80.4K	Stacks 259
Followers 59.1K	Followers 381
Votes 468	Votes 25
Pros & Cons
Pros 230 Free to use 96 Easy setup for testing discord bot 57 Gateway Linux Distro 54 Simple interface 9 Don't need driver installation in most cases Cons 5 Demanding system requirements 4 Adds overhead and unnecessary complexity over Debian 2 Snapd installed by default 1 Systemd	Pros 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 Cons 3 Packages are too large in size as compare to alpine 3 Outdated versions of common packages 3 Wireless driver issues on some systems 2 Root GUI setup is a potential security hole
Integrations
No integrations available	VirtualBox MySQL Slack

What are some alternatives to Ubuntu, Kali Linux?

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.

Arch Linux

A lightweight and flexible Linux distribution that tries to Keep It Simple.

Fedora

Fedora is a Linux-based operating system that provides users with access to the latest free and open source software, in a stable, secure and easy to manage form. Fedora is the largest of many free software creations of the Fedora Project. Because of its predominance, the word "Fedora" is often used interchangeably to mean both the Fedora Project and the Fedora operating system.

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.

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.

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.

CoreOS

It is designed for security, consistency, and reliability. Instead of installing packages via yum or apt, it uses Linux containers to manage your services at a higher level of abstraction. A single service's code and all dependencies are packaged within a container that can be run on one or many machines.

Gentoo Linux

It is a free operating system based on either Linux or FreeBSD that can be automatically optimized and customized for just about any application or need.

Alpine Linux

Alpine Linux is a security-oriented, lightweight Linux distribution based on musl libc and busybox.

Manjaro

It is an accessible, friendly, open-source Linux distribution and community. Based on Arch Linux, it provides all the benefits of cutting-edge software combined with a focus on getting started quickly, automated tools to require less manual intervention, and help readily available when needed.

Related Comparisons

Kali Linux vs Ubuntu: What are the differences?

<!-- Introduction -->

# Key Differences between Kali Linux and Ubuntu

1. **Objective**: Kali Linux is specifically designed for digital forensics and penetration testing, with built-in tools for these purposes. On the other hand, Ubuntu is a more general-purpose operating system with a focus on ease of use for average users. 
   
2. **Default Applications**: In Kali Linux, the default applications installed are geared towards security testing, such as Wireshark, Aircrack-ng, and Metasploit, while Ubuntu comes with more mainstream applications like LibreOffice, Firefox, and Thunderbird. 

3. **Security Focus**: Kali Linux places a higher priority on security out of the box, with features such as a non-root user model and network services disabled by default. Ubuntu, while still secure, may require additional configuration for enterprise-level security requirements.

4. **Release Cycle**: Ubuntu follows a regular release schedule with new versions every 6 months, focusing on stability and long-term support (LTS) versions every 2 years. In contrast, Kali Linux has rolling releases, meaning users always have the latest tools and updates without the need for major version upgrades.

5. **Community Support**: Ubuntu has a larger user base and community support compared to Kali Linux, making it easier to find solutions to common issues or receive help from other users. Kali Linux, being more specialized, has a smaller but dedicated community focused on security testing.

6. **User Interface**: Ubuntu comes with the GNOME desktop environment by default, providing a modern and user-friendly interface, while Kali Linux uses the lightweight Xfce desktop environment for performance and resource efficiency, catering to its target audience of security professionals.

In Summary, Kali Linux and Ubuntu have distinct differences in their focus, default applications, security measures, release cycles, community support, and user interfaces.

Kali Linux vs Ubuntu

Overview