mormaii2 Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 Hello guys, i'm quite new to linux and i've been experimenting lately with a few VMs (BackTrack and Ubuntu are just a couple to name). I'm planning on getting a new computer and i plan on using only linux on it. The question lies on which distro should i choose to use as a main OS? I will be doing INFOSEC stuff and coding as well as listening to music,watching videos,uploading pictures and that sort of thing. I was wondering if maybe BackTrack could be used as a main OS. Could you install some video players,music players, document editors,etc..? Is BackTrack stable enough to be used as a main OS? Is it safe? What about other distros such as Fedora or Debian? Would they be good for pentesting/casual use? I'm sorry for the poor phrasing of this post, my english isn't good. If you didn't understand something, let me know! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr-Protocol Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 Hello guys, i'm quite new to linux and i've been experimenting lately with a few VMs (BackTrack and Ubuntu are just a couple to name). I'm planning on getting a new computer and i plan on using only linux on it. The question lies on which distro should i choose to use as a main OS? I will be doing INFOSEC stuff and coding as well as listening to music,watching videos,uploading pictures and that sort of thing. I was wondering if maybe BackTrack could be used as a main OS. Could you install some video players,music players, document editors,etc..? Is BackTrack stable enough to be used as a main OS? Is it safe? What about other distros such as Fedora or Debian? Would they be good for pentesting/casual use? I'm sorry for the poor phrasing of this post, my english isn't good. If you didn't understand something, let me know! Backtrack is not a good choice for a "Main OS". It uses outdated almost everything for stability. Use an Ubuntu based distro. There is tons of help out there with Ubuntu based distros with the use of Google. Ubuntu is a Debian based distro. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digip Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 Backtrack works for what it was designed to do, with specific hardware and configurations in mind. Not everything will work on all laptops. Sound for instance on mine, since latest updates I've done, no longer works properly. On my old machine, didn't work at all, so watching video, was out of the question. its not meant for multimedia, but if all the stars align and you have the right combination of hardware, sacrafice a few kittens, then yeah, it would do fine. uBuntu on the other hand, has its own ups and downs with hardware, but usually works across the board with most everything today. Personally, I would say use the backtrack only after you get your feet wet a bit with linux in general, just for security purposes, as backtrack by default runs as root. Once you learn how to create users, groups, sudoers users and settings, then go for backtrack. uBuntu takes a lot of that guess work out of the way for you as a beginner, but at some point, can hinder knowing how to do stuff. If you want to dive in the deep end though, and just get your hands dirty, backtrack would be fine. just don't expect everything to work the way you expect it to out of the box. Most linux distros don't anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infiltrator Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 Hello guys, i'm quite new to linux and i've been experimenting lately with a few VMs (BackTrack and Ubuntu are just a couple to name). I'm planning on getting a new computer and i plan on using only linux on it. The question lies on which distro should i choose to use as a main OS? I will be doing INFOSEC stuff and coding as well as listening to music,watching videos,uploading pictures and that sort of thing. I was wondering if maybe BackTrack could be used as a main OS. Could you install some video players,music players, document editors,etc..? Is BackTrack stable enough to be used as a main OS? Is it safe? What about other distros such as Fedora or Debian? Would they be good for pentesting/casual use? I'm sorry for the poor phrasing of this post, my english isn't good. If you didn't understand something, let me know! I'd not recommend Backtrack as your main OS, instead use Ubuntu, as its been designed as a desktop OS for everyday usage. Backtrack on the other hand, was designed for security auditing and most of its operations are conducted from a terminal window, which could prove challenging at first, if you are not a Linux user. Ubuntu is quite friendly and there are tons of tutorials and guides on the internet, to make your transition as smooth as possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vdub Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 I use openSUSE. I have been for years and its treated me very well. I run all the same pen testing that I can from backtrack and it works very well as a main OS. Even handles an XP VM so I can use netflix. I remember back to my Windows days and I am not sacrificing anything with openSUSE. Honestly I a gaining an extremely powerful OS and still watching the big bang theory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mormaii2 Posted May 18, 2012 Author Share Posted May 18, 2012 Thanks for your reply guys. I certainly won't use BackTrack as my main OS, at least not yet since i'm a beginner with linux. The question relies on which distro should i choose then? It should be one which would be compatible with BackTrack tools. BackTrack is based off ubuntu, so technically they should be compatible with ubuntu, right? And if Ubuntu is based off debian then backtrack tools should work on debian too? I still don't know which distro to choose, I've been recommended: Fedora,Debian,Ubuntu,Archlinux and Linux mint. I've heard Fedora is not easy to use for beginners so it might be left out of the question. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbyb1980 Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 Yes, Backtrack is based off of Ubuntu but they are quite different. For example, Backtrack does not have flash installed by default. Backtrack also has several security settings that make everyday functions quite difficult. Just go with Ubuntu. If for whatever reason you two don't get along, then you can change, but Ubuntu is a very good starting place. I've been using Linux for about 2 years now and I still use Ubuntu as my day to day OS. Remember not to be afraid of Backtrack either, you can use it, we just wouldn't recommend it as an everyday thing. Don't forget to keep it simple : ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infiltrator Posted May 19, 2012 Share Posted May 19, 2012 I've used Debian and Fedora before and they can be quite complex and difficult to learn, specially if you are a beginner. I'd use Ubuntu, it will be a lot easier to learn, and there are plenty of tutorials on Google, on how to use it. It will also give you the experience you will need, for later when using Backtrack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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