What’s behind the free software sofa?
KALI 2023.4
Beloved by pen-testers everywhere, Kali’s latest iteration includes Gnome 45, giving it the benefit of better search features in Nautilus and full-height sidebars. Kali Linux AMD64 and ARM64 will also now be available on Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure marketplaces. There’s a Raspberry Pi 5 image, too. Kali also now uses mirrorbits to optimise installation and updates of packages. There are a number of new security tools as well. Learn more at www.kali.org.
MABOX 23.12
Mabox is a relatively new operating system, having first been released as recently as 2020. It’s designed to be a lightweight Linux distribution, featuring a customised desktop based on Openbox. The latest version uses the LTS version of the Linux kernel (6.6) but there’s also an ISO image available for older hardware that uses kernel 5.4. Mabox utilises Tint2 and Jgmenu to create powerful customisable panels, upgraded Conky widgets and a Quake-style console. You can find out more at https://maboxlinux.org.
ARMBIAN 23.11
Armbian is designed for a wide variety of popular ARM-based devices, including Banana Pi, CubieBoard, Olimex, Orange Pi, Odroid, Pine64 and others. The latest version, code-named Topi, expands this further to include the NanoPi R6S/R6C, TI SK-TDA4VM and Xiaomi-elish, among others. Daily image builds are also now available based on Ubuntu Mantic or Debian Trixie, and the OS now features fixed display managers across all desktops. See www.armbian.com to le
