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L in u X ba sics for h acke rs g e t t I n g s t a r t e d w I t hBog'liq linuxbasicsforhackersDownloading Kali Linux
Before getting started, you need to download and install Kali Linux on your
computer. This is the Linux distribution we will be working with throughout
this book. Linux was first developed by Linus Torvalds in 1991 as an open
source alternative to Unix. Since it is open source, volunteer developers code
the kernel, the utilities, and the applications. This means that there is no
overriding corporate entity overseeing development, and as a result, conven-
tions and standardization are often lacking.
Kali Linux was developed by Offensive Security as a hacking operat-
ing system built on a distribution of Linux called Debian. There are many
distributions of Linux, and Debian is one of the best. You are probably most
familiar with Ubuntu as a popular desktop distribution of Linux. Ubuntu is
also built on Debian. Other distributions include Red Hat, CentOS, Mint,
Arch, and SUSE. Although they all share the same Linux kernel (the heart
of the operating system that controls the CPU, RAM, and so on), each has its
own utilities, applications, and choice of graphical interface (GNOME, KDE,
and others) for different purposes. As a result, each of these distributions of
Linux looks and feels slightly different. Kali was designed for penetration tes-
ters and hackers and comes with a significant complement of hacking tools.
I strongly recommend that you use Kali for this book. Although you can
use another distribution, you will likely have to download and install the
various tools we will be using, which could mean many hours downloading
and installing tools. In addition, if that distribution is not built on Debian,
there may be other minor differences. You can download and install Kali
from https://www.kali.org/.
From the home page, hover over the
Downloads
link at the top of the
page and click
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