i had a friend tell me thta the distro i was using isnt good for pentesting, and so on. apparently he was a fan of some other distroo and whatever... but now i have this thing in the back of my head, and am curious what is the "best". any opinions???

IMO a choice of tools depends on what you need to accomplish. It's not about being forced to use what a distro chose to provide. I'd say don't let any distro choice non-issues cloud over what it's all about, just take a few with you.

The guys/gals at http://en.hakin9.org/ include a customized version of Backtrack2 with their magazine. Comes with lots of fully functional (but time limited) evals and there are even some discount codes hidden inside the mag if you decide to purchase.

Well worth the price IMHO.

hakin9's distro isn't a version of backtrack, unless they've changed things in the recent past. I believe their current distro is based off of Aurox 12, which is based off of FC5 (see http://hakin9.org/en/haking/hakin9_live.html...I was also able to verify this (awhile back) by visiting the Aurox forums and asking questions). I actually installed it to hard disk on one of my laptops (I sometimes buy the magazine at B+N). Compared to Backtrack, hakin9 lacks substance. It doesn't appear as well-polished as Backtrack either. I didn't compare them back to back but over the course of 6 months, installing hakin9 first and using it for approx. 3 months then wiping the install and installing backtrack2, and using that for 3 months (in fact, it is still installed and used).

hakin9 also has no forum support (or any other type of support, it appears).

You're right, though...the offer discounts in the software they include with their magazine and offer evals of commercial products. That's well and good, but for the price of their magazine, I'd expect MORE than what they include. I pay around the same amount for other magazine and get much more in comparison. I've seen better articles in SysAdmin mag...articles that contain information that I've actually used IRL.

Being in the IT security industry, I'm not really impressed with what hakin9 has offered thus far. If I don't buy their magazine, I certainly skim through it on a monthly basis....there's a reason I don't subscribe.

For the OP, here are some pentesting distros to check out:

Backtrack -- http://www.remote-exploit.org/backtrack.html
Nubuntu -- http://www.nubuntu.org/
Phlak -- http://www.phlak.org/
hakin9 -- http://hakin9.org/en/haking/hakin9_live.html (so as to not appear biased)
Knoppix STD -- http://s-t-d.org/ (oldie but goodie)
Helix -- http://www.e-fense.com/helix/index.php (forensics live CD)

Note that Auditor isn't listed...it merged with Backtrack.

I see, so you don't buy their mag yet you know everything about it.

Well, I do buy their mag and I make no claims of knowing everything about it or anything else. What I do know is the latest issues says right on the cover that their hackin9.live (h9l for short) distro is based on the Backtrack2 engine.

I buy tons of mags. I've STOPPED buying hakin9. I never stated I knew everything of it. Everything I said is based on my thoughts and experiences...that surely doesn't mean I know everything about them. I do know that, based on my experiences in the IT security arena, they aren't offering me much value for the cost of their magazine, which is a lot of money.

Regarding what the distro is based from, I believe I stated that things may have changed. If they have, they haven't yet updated their website, which is where I got some of the information from.

Before I go endorsing a payware magazine, I'll definitely find an equivalent or better free version of the software in question. In fact, I supplied a few (all free) versions, which should help the OP and offer him (free) choices.

How about whax ? This distribtution is slakware based and come with many metaexploit framework.

I hope this help.

Whax is now integrated into Backtrack2. Whax and Auditor merged to become Backtrack.

In fact, all you did was repeat what was in the very first reply by unspawn, which apparently you didn't read, much like I suspect is the case with hackin9.

MySlax.

So I can keep all the bloatware and cr*p off a decent pentesting livecd

From now on please play nice, leave out hostile remarks or clearly biassed Live CD descriptions.
I also removed useless banter to /General to the thread "slax ad", that just doesn't belong in Linux Security. Please keep it to the point and factual.