Which Linux to pick?

[Discord]

I know that some of you guys out there know quite a bit more about Linux than I do. What I'm looking for is:

- a OS that doesn't specifically focus on eye candies
- preferably, can run from a LiveCD more or less efficiently
- most importantly, would allow me to play about with buffer overflows

Any suggestions?:)

[o_O]

As far as becoming adept at Linux goes, I recommend Gentoo or Slack. Gentoo is my favourite distro because everything is up to me. I can easily create a powerful, yet streamlined fully customized system according to my needs. The community is unparallelled too, as is portage.

No desktop environment is installed by default (you have to do it yourself, but that's as easy as "emerge kde") so it definitely doesn't focus on eyecandy, but the option is always there (I have Beryl installed, and it's great. :p).

The LiveCDs/DVDs are fully functional and I haven't had trouble with the few that I've used, though I usually do a minimal install which is a massively cut down LiveCD without a DE, etc.

Slack is a little more difficult to use, but mostly it's the same kind of principle as Gentoo. It's definitely a developer's distribution and is known for being rock solid in terms of stability. I used it for a little while, but I didn't really like it as much as Gentoo though, so I went back.

As far as buffer overflows go, any distro is as good as the next unless you want to exploit overflows in the distribution itself, since they occur from poor programming practice. Why do you want to play around with them anyway?

[ZeZipster]

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[Discord]

Alright, thanks a bunch for the advice. Finding a neutral source about Linux on the net seems to be a pretty tough task. Slackware's looking good though. Once again, thanks a bunch for the advice.:cool:

And on the matter of the buffer-overflows... well, you know, in order to prevent something you need to know what exactly that is you're willing to stop. I know the theory of buffer-overflow exploits, but it'd be quite fun to actually have a couple of runs over them in practice.:tongue:

[o_O]

If you want to see a properly exploitable buffer overflow you probably need to write one yourself, since you'd be very hard pressed to find one in some existing piece of software that you could use to do anything of substance. You would need to structure your program in such a way that some visible variable occupies memory adjacent to the buffer you will overflow.

Beryl is pretty cool, but Ubuntu isn't. :p
Ubuntu is very much geared towards Linux newbies, and while it's quite stable and (very) easy to use, it's quite limited with regard to the amount of flexibility provided by default. You'll also find the Ubuntu forums are loaded with dumb questions, and as a result, the devs there are cynical and like to answer all questions with sarcasm and elitist remarks. :p

Discord, if you choose Slackware, be aware that it's touted as one of the hardest distributions to operate. Be prepared for a lot of package-management and dependency hell because pkgtool doesn't check any dependencies. It's the way Slack users seem to like it, but it certainly gets frustrating.

[Yamaneko]

I could have sworn you were talking about Gentoo. From what I've gathered its the Gentoo community that's pretty elitist and doesn't really welcome newbie questions and new people in general. Ubuntu has the biggest and most open Linux community out there and a lot of the bleeding edge stuff is packaged for it first.

[Baloki]

I like Suse :(

Also Beryl is availible for most Linux distros if not all Zee

[Discord]

If you want to see a properly exploitable buffer overflow you probably need to write one yourself, since you'd be very hard pressed to find one in some existing piece of software that you could use to do anything of substance. You would need to structure your program in such a way that some visible variable occupies memory adjacent to the buffer you will overflow.

I know, I know. Inconspicuously toss in the memory location for the shell and off we go.;) I just need an environment that will allow me to do this more or less freely without bugging me all the time about some sort of non-sense.:p

What does Zee stand for though?

[Shoeberto]

I could have sworn you were talking about Gentoo. From what I've gathered its the Gentoo community that's pretty elitist and doesn't really welcome newbie questions and new people in general. Ubuntu has the biggest and most open Linux community out there and a lot of the bleeding edge stuff is packaged for it first.
I can't speak for the Gentoo community (though I have heard good things), but I've never seen sarcastic or elitist remarks at the Ubuntu forums.

Dumb questions, yes, but those generally can be avoided by not looking through the Absolute Beginners forum :)

I've not noticed that big of a lack of flexibility, but then again, I'm not really the type who likes to regularly build stuff from source and such.

I think most distros can offer more or less what you're aiming for. I wouldn't even be surprised if there's a security practice distro out there that has intentionally exploitable software in it. Distrowatch is a good site to check to look at the various available types that are out there.

[rubah]

What does Zee stand for though?

ZeZipster, to whom Baloki was speaking.

[bipper]

slackware is by far my favorite. I like the stability it offers out of box, and it can be relatively simple, if you keep it simple, but what the hell is the fun in that. For ease, I tout ubuntu even though I like the KDE environment in Kubuntu better anyways. Though, the latest release of XFCE makes me wonder why I ever talked myself into bigware.

I dun think debian was mentioned - it always deserves a well rounded shout out. :)

I started with slack, and did not have much of a problem receiving help. Though I did RTFM (read the fucking manual) so that helped a lot. Realistically, I simply stick to shell more than anything, and tend to use my windows VM for gaming and internets anymore.