Kali Linux vs Solus

Kali Linux is a Debian-based distribution for advanced penetration testing and security auditing. It includes tools and configurations for computer forensics, reverse engineering, vulnerability detection, and other information security work. Its listed tools include Aircrack-ng, Burp Suite, Hydra, John the Ripper, Metasploit Framework, Nmap, sqlmap, and Wireshark. Kali is intended for experienced penetration testers and security specialists; its documentation assumes Linux familiarity. It supports bare-metal installs, virtual machines, cloud, containers, ARM devices, USB or DVD live environments, and Windows Subsystem for Linux. A Live USB can run without changing the host operating system, and persistence volumes can be encrypted. Users can build custom ISO images with metapackages and live-build. Network services are disabled by default, Bluetooth is blocklisted, and packages and repositories are signed. Kali is free of charge, though its non-free section includes some tools that are not open source. It follows a rolling release model, with fresh official point-release images generated quarterly. Kali NetHunter is a free and open-source Android penetration testing platform with a Kali container, desktop experience, app, and app store.

Solus is a free, independent Linux operating system for home and office use on personal computers. It comes in Budgie, GNOME, Plasma and Xfce desktop editions. Budgie includes settings tools and Raven for notifications, media playback and sound-device controls; Xfce is intended as a lightweight option for less powerful hardware. Solus follows a stable rolling release model, with weekly updates that the project says are tested before release and do not require system reinstalls. It ships with Firefox, Thunderbird and LibreOffice, and supports Flatpak applications. The Software Center provides graphical software management, while eopkg handles package operations from the command line. Minimum requirements are a 64-bit x86-64 processor, 4 GB RAM and 10 GB free disk space. Solus is available as installable ISO images for physical computers, including desktops and laptops. Installation help is available through its documentation, Matrix community and forum. The project describes itself as volunteer-run and reliant on community donations.