Best *nix for hacking

[tgoe]

OS X isn't based off of UNIX it is a UNIX®... which means that Apple paid to have its OS certified that it follows the UNIX specification. As for it being a BSD, I'd say it is. A large portion of the kernel and much of the userland is BSD code! I'm pretty sure Apple's proprietary changes are all interface related and aren't even necessary to get it running: http://www.puredarwin.org/screenshots

[SunSpyda]

I though the Darwin kernel was Mach, like Steve Job's Nextstep OS? When I ran Darwin it seemed more Mach to me.

[Kirth]

Mac OS X is pathetic. Using it for hacking my ass. I prefer Linux Mint (or Debian). Ubuntu's for sissies.

[tgoe]

Mach itself was originally developed as a BSD variant and the Darwin kernel (XNU) is kinda like two kernels at once -- Mach & BSD.

[SunSpyda]

As you said, it is a real UNIX, but it doesn't seem like UNIX to me when I use it, but this is just my honest opinion, not a fact

Anyway, why use a OS based off FreeBSD, when you can use FreeBSD itself? I'm assuming with your avatar, that that's the case...

@ Kirth - Well, I stopped using the Linuces because they seemed to love to self destruct on any kind of kernel update. Not to mention their diabolical installation system, most of the popular ones break too easily. I only have BT3 on my laptop, because I can't find a WiFi injection and raw monitor driver for any of the BSDs. The BSDs are far ahead of the Linuces in my experience; they break less, they have fool proof installation systems, and they only add stuff into final releases if it actually works. Some of the stuff they put into popular Linux distros final releases could be called 'beta', but nothing more. BSDs have less stuff, but the stuff works a lot better.

[tgoe]

heh, yeah I switched to FreeBSD a long time ago as a complete noob. I bought a brand new book that came with the Linux distro OpenLinux. After getting it all setup and finally online I tried to update only to learn that the entire project was discontinued xD

[SunSpyda]

Caldera OpenLinux? I remember that... But it's a bit before my time.

I switched because I was running Mandrake Linux 10, I then updated to Mandriva 2007 and *BAM*... my sound, graphics, and a vast array of other things just keeled over.

I ran many other Linuces after that, including Ubuntu, Korrara, Slackware, Debian, RHELS, SLES, BT2/3, Kubuntu, DSL, Puppy, CentOS and Fedora. They were all good at certain things.... but they always broke somewhere down the line. When asked, it was quite often a known fault in the kernel or distro software setup, not me screwing up.

Then I thought, "Screw it. I'm not running that buggy OS anymore... But I'm not running Windows or OS X either...".
So I found BSD... It was like Linux, but it worked without failure. In fact, if something failed, I could guarantee it was my error, not the OS's.

I run OpenBSD on things where I can, but if OpenBSD's infamous performance slows me too much, I use FreeBSD, which is also great, and runs *fast*.

I'll post part two of my life story in a bit.... JK

[neocontra]

I've ran Ubuntu, Mandriva, openSUSE, and Kubuntu.....Ubuntu is still my favorite for hacking, but I'm more of a noob to Linux. I don't really know of a distro that's "made" for hacking. Anything you get, you'll have to download tools at some point, so you might as well just find a distro you're comfortable with.

I know a lot of people prefer Slackware...but I've never used it.

[fiftysixer]

With any distro, I prefer to install a minimal 'base' system and customize it from there. So as far as 'best for hacking' goes, they're all equal. However:

- If you want a ready-made desktop, Ubuntu is great,
- If you want something easy-to-maintain, Debian is great,
- If you want something extremely customizable, Gentoo is great,
- If you want to hax the neighbors wifi, Backtrack is great,
- This can go on forever.

That said, there's nothing that one distro can do that the others can't. It all depends on how you set it up. I've got Ubuntu on my desktop, Debian on my home server, FreeBSD on another server, OpenBSD on the wreck-box, yet my favorite OS is Windows XP. And as far as the *nix boxes go, the only real difference is the packages installed - I'm equally happy with a base install of any of them.

So shouldn't this thread be named "best *nix apps for hacking" instead? :p

[bird7727]

I am incredibly surprised no one has mentioned Back Track. I think it is Slackware based and has many of the tools you need. The only bad thing about it is...well I can't think of one.