Week 13 a.k.a. Good Linux And Even Better One

What started out as a hobby pproject in 1991 grew into a family of professional systems with thousands of different flavours. This is Week 13 of SPEAIT2021K course and I would like to give a brief overview of two Linux distros of my choice.

1. Kali Linux

Since I'm an Cyber Security Engineering student, it is obvious that my first choice will be Kali Linux, although Backbox and Parrot Security would also be a viable option. When installing Kali Linux, user is prompted to read the history of Kali Linux. Most people skip it and dive head first into exploring the OS, but not me (at least not me on boring day). As I've read it quite a while ago and could not find the text anywhere on the Internet, I will give just a brief overview of the Kali Linux history.

Funny thing is, Kali did not start as an OS at all - at first, it was just a collection of hacking tools, different utilities and exploits. There was a team of young enthusiastic hackers, who wrote their own exploits and stole other's and their collection just kept on growing. As it got bigger and bigger, it was harder to maintain it, upgrade, add, categorize etc. So one day they decided to put an OS over it to make it easier to work with their tools. Long story short, that's how Kali Linux was created. I encourage you to find the story somehow, maybe install Kali on a VM and read the full story, trust me, you will now regret it. Anyway, even though Kali can be used on daily basis, it is meant to be used as a penetration tool to help hackers do their thing.

2. Qubes OS

Second distro I would want to highlihgt is Qubes OS, which might be quite interresting for us, cyber security students. This OS focuses on security rather than on usability which allows it to be one of the most secure systems available. I think it's worth mentioning, that infamous Edward Snowden, who obviously cares about his security like noone else, recommended this OS.

Qubes OS follow Security by isolation approach. Virtually everything in this OS works in a separate VM. Every app, Wi-Fi, firewall, storage, USB-drives - everything is isolated from one another by using separate VMs. Windows has Task Manager - Qubes has VM Manager. Task manager lists all services that are currently running on the machine - in similar fashion, Qubes lists all VMs that are currently running on the machine. User is also able to segment apps into different domains, e.g. Home, Work, Social Media etc. Color coding, or Window Decoration for Security, is then used to differentiate betweem these domains.

Overall, Qubes OS is not really suited for use on daily basis, but it's good to have when you're working or testing something.