I'm completely new to Linux, and im thinking about duel-booting a Linux distro on my new PC upgrade.


I'm an offensive security tester who's working in a private group as shellcode developer and network developer.


Can anybody give me advice in the Linux distro that would be right for me? I want a sleek, customizable distribution. I want to be able to customize everything from button color, wallpaper, layout, right-click menu. EVERYTHING!


Im in desperate need as im new to Linux. Please help, and thank you!

You can do that in just about every distro.

Your thread title needs to have your question there. To answer your question as far as I know any linux distro can fit your bill, its just different distros have different looks and behaviors. That is one of the beauties of linux, if you do not like it change it or if it is too much work to change switch distros to one that comes closer to what you want.

im startin to like linux already. But any distros you would recommend? Any that are solid and based around custimization?

I think you should be focused on how it works more than how it looks. You can make any distro look and feel just about any way you want, with the right configuration, nearly anything is possible.

If you are willing to read and learn, Arch can be made into anything you want it to be.

There is an entire subforum that deals with distros. Oddly enough it's called Linux-Distributions.

A good title goes a long way towards getting quality replies.

Asking the "which distro" question for the millionth time will result in nothing more than people tossing out their favorite distros. You have to evaluate them according to your own needs, wants, preferences, and knowledge level.

Distrowatch.com is a good place to start.

Offensive security tester? I find that offensive!

I'd say Arch is right up your alley, but I'm heavily biased It installs a base system that leaves you with nothing more than a command line. From there, you add only what you want using the package manager. You can customize every package to your liking using "abs", but 99% of them don't need to be changed. I have done a lot of distro-hopping, and Arch is the one that gives the sleekest install for sure.

This full-control approach is often intimidating to new users, though. You may want to start with something easier. Distros like Fedora or Ubuntu should work right out of the box. But they lack in the sleek department.

A good middleground would be Slackware. It's rather sleek, but still quite functional right after installation. I suppose it is the distro I would recommend to tech-savvy people such as yourself.

Don't worry about customizing your desktop, any distro will allow you to do that. Nearly all desktop environments (including KDE, XFCE, Gnome, and so many others) are entirely customizable. Just go check out kde-look.org, gnome-look.org, xfce-look.org, etc...

The best advice I have ever seen given is this: Find a live CD for a distribution that interests you, and take it for a test drive. If you don't like it, just throw away the CD. Nothing got installed on your PC, so there's no hassle.

Hope that helps,
peart

I like Gentoo for being completely customizable, and I use Gentoo... but you should most likely start with something a little less customizable until you learn to love the command line.
Arch is not a bad choice. The live CD suggestion is also a good one.

Since you are completely new to Linux, I would recommend Ubuntu. After you get a bit of experience troubleshooting and maintaining your system, then you will be better able to decide what distro you want for "customizing".

If this were a decision about what car to get, we would all recommend something safe, dependable, and easy to maintain (e.g. Honda Civic). You should learn to drive before you start trying to "customize" or you will spend all your time trying to fix what you broke with your last modification.

I would suggest going to distrowatch.com and picking a few distros out of the top ten and trying them out

Good advice, thanks. I'll do just that

Yeah, baby steps...

Your first distribution should be a live-evaluation CD that readily installs to the hard drive if you like what you see. Ubuntu is fine. Other possibilities:

PCLinuxOS
SimplyMepis