which distro of linux

im contimplating on which version of linux to download. i was goin to install mandrake, but was having second thoughts, is there a different distro i should get if im into learning about security and hacking with linux?



thanks

Well there is no 'certain' distro , but im on SuSE 8.2 now and I love it dearly.. But when i migrated to linux i went out and bought the Mandrake 9.0 powerpack.. I don't regret it at all , but even if you do go to one certain distro , don't ditch it right away and think that you should jump right into slack.. Stick with it for awhile and weave in and out of some problems and solve them yourself.. Manage users and buy books on securing it.. You'll get it , reading is learning :)

if you just want to play with some tools you can try knoppix std. Its a live cd distro that can run on any comp that boots from cd.

PHALK, www.phlak.org (i think) is a boot from CD type thing as well. Even provides for NVIDIA video card.

well search the forum and you will find lots of similar question and answers tooo....i am sure those will surely help you. i suppose in the past there was a poll on which distro the members use....have a look at that too ...

anyhow i am a Mandrake user and i havent ever had any probs with it which will make shift over to other distro....and i personally dont like RH anymore.

Just my thoughts.

Well I would say our linux distro which is exactly what it is made for "Hacking, testing, and forensics" but unfortunately it is not done yet. "sigh"

I would still say for beginners Redhat or Mandrake would be the best choice. I agree with Mnchur in that if you just want to play with some of the tools then Knoppix is the way to go. Yes, there are not as many tools on it has PHLAK has, but I have had issues with PHLAK booting properly on a couple of computers. I have never had Knoppix fail yet. It is a good tool get your feet wet.

Ive used Mandrake and Knopix but some vulnerablity scanners I wanted to use on are on RedHat rpms so I made another partiton and am now running redhat . I would reccomend doing a full install if you have the room because I had to get a lot of stuff to build some packages.

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I would reccomend doing a full install if you have the room because I had to get a lot of stuff to build some packages.

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I've done full installs in the past... and still had to get tons of packages for various apps.

If you do a full install... MAKE SURE YOU DISABLE SERVICES YOU AREN'T GOING TO USE!!!.

There are quite a few services that are run on a default full install that you'll probably never use. Takes up quite a bit of resources if you don't stop what isn't necessary. Not to mention each service has its own risks...

To be honest, if your going for a distro that you want to use with alot of packages you can sue without having to download them, go for SuSE. theres no distro made for anything in specific unless you buy server versions. They all run on the same kernel, the only difference is what packages it comes with.

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Originally posted here by zexter
im contimplating on which version of linux to download. i was goin to install mandrake, but was having second thoughts, is there a different distro i should get if im into learning about security and hacking with linux?
thanks

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I could not recommend a distro for Linux if you want to learn about "Sercurity and hacking". I would have thought that the objective would be to fully understand Linux, before you can contemplate anything else. Are you expert in Linux ? If not learn the system totally before considering the security aspects