Kali Linux
Shares rank 48 of 63 Linux distributions by recommenders
Free Linux distribution that people run in virtual machines, on portable hardware, and remember fondly from their university and gaming days.
Free Linux distribution that people run in virtual machines, on portable hardware, and remember fondly from their university and gaming days.
8 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 88%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Fond memories of using it
“I remember booting Kali Linux in my university library and feeling like such a badass.”
Comment from 1 Jul 2026 in “Knoppix” “I spent an entire summer playing Warcraft 2 on Kali”
Comment from 6 Aug 2026 in “Let's all meet up in the Y2K” Runs in VMs and portable hardware
“Kali/UTM with an mcp server pointed at my LMstudio”
Comment from 1 Jul 2026 in “Qwen 3.6 27B is the sweet spot for local development” “For Kali, I sport a GPD Pocket 2”
Comment from 29 Jan 2026 on Hacker News
Other Linux distributions people recommend
The four most recommended other Linux distributions, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu | 560 | 493 | 53% | 12 | 10 yrs116 owners | — |
| Debian | 552 | 191 | 74% | 13 | 10 yrs62 owners | Approved |
| NixOS | 454 | 112 | 80% | 13 | 2 yrs69 owners | Approved |
| Fedora Linux | 437 | 131 | 77% | 12 | 2 yrs72 owners | Approved |
| Kali LinuxThis page | 7 | 1 | 88% | 6 | — | — |
What people said
5 of the 10 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I spent an entire summer playing Warcraft 2 on Kali”
“Kali/UTM with an mcp server pointed at my LMstudio”
“I remember booting Kali Linux in my university library and feeling like such a badass.”
“armed with simple Kali Linux, decides to strike back against the tyranny of the government”
“For Kali, I sport a GPD Pocket 2”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.