Kali or Debian
 

OK, so I am taking Cyber security classes at my college, and I am getting myself into pen testing and stuff of that sort (but still completely a newbie). I am deciding between what OS I want for my laptop < Debian or Kali >. I know Kali is used mostly for security field type work, but I would also like to be able to practice on my Developing skills to. would kali os be a good choice for me or would debian be a better choice for security/development? I have met a few security professionals who keep telling me that real professionals use whatever os they want and just build their own tools?

why not dual boot? if debian gives u headaches compiling some pentest program u could boot to kali and it could have it installed / at some repo.

Kali is really not designed to be a general purpose "everyday" OS.
Install Debian (most of the Kali tools are available in the Debian repo's anyway) and use Kali as a live OS from a disk or usb as and when required..

Thanks for your post's. Another question though, I am most likely going to be running Debian on my desktop rig I am going to be building, for development and gaming. What are your thoughts on using Arch OS on my laptop for developing and general purposes,and add the BlackArch on top of that for security testing?

use Debian 8 for everyday use

for Kali it is a VERY special signal purpose OS
DO NOT!!! add any third party repos and DO NOT !!! change the default ones that are pre installed
Kali's tools ARE dependent on the pre installed repos


kali is best used on a usb thumb drive as a LIVE image with FULL disk encryption and persistence
PS.
use at least a 8 word random generated "pass phrase" a 12 word one would be BETTER