Arch Linux is an independently developed, i686/x86-64 general purpose GNU/Linux distribution versatile enough to suit any role. Development focuses on simplicity, minimalism, and code elegance. Arch is installed as a minimal base system, configured by the user upon which their own ideal environment is assembled by installing only what is required or desired for their unique purposes. GUI configuration utilities are not officially provided, and most system configuration is performed from the shell by editing simple text files. Arch strives to stay bleeding edge, and typically offers the latest stable versions of most software.

Arch Linux uses its own Pacman package manager, which couples simple binary packages with an easy-to-use package build system. This allows users to easily manage and customize packages ranging from official Arch software to the user's own personal packages to packages from 3rd party sources. The repository system also allows users to easily build and maintain their own custom build scripts, packages, and repositories, encouraging community growth and contribution.

The minimal Arch base package set resides in the streamlined [core] repository. In addition, the official [extra], [community], and [testing] repositories provide several thousand high-quality, packages to meet your software demands. Arch also offers an [unsupported] section in the Arch Linux User Repository (AUR), which contains over 9,000 build scripts, for compiling installable packages from source using the Arch Linux makepkg application.

Arch Linux uses a "rolling release" system which allows one-time installation and perpetual software upgrades. It is not generally necessary to reinstall or upgrade your Arch Linux system from one "version" to the next. By issuing one command, an Arch system is kept up-to-date and on the bleeding edge.

Arch strives to keep its packages as close to the original upstream software as possible. Patches are applied only when necessary to ensure an application compiles and runs correctly with the other packages installed on an up-to-date Arch system.

Kali Linux is the new generation of the industry-leading BackTrack Linux penetration testing and security auditing Linux distribution.

Kali Linux is a complete re-build of BackTrack from the ground up, adhering completely to Debian development standards.

Torrent

Official Site Downloads

The time has come to refresh our security tool arsenal – BackTrack 5 R3 has been released. R3 focuses on bug-fixes as well as the addition of over 60 new tools – several of which were released in BlackHat and Defcon 2012. A whole new tool category was populated – “Physical Exploitation”, which now includes tools such as the Arduino IDE and libraries, as well as the Kautilya Teensy payload collection.

Building, testing and releasing a new BackTrack revision is never an easy task. Keeping up-to-date with all the latest tools, while balancing their requirements of dependencies, is akin to a magic show juggling act. Thankfully, active members of our redmine community such as backtracklover and JudasIscariot make our task that much easier by actively reporting bugs and suggesting new tools on a regular basis. Hats off to the both of you.

We would like to thank Offensive Security for providing the BackTrack dev team with the funding and resources to make all of this happen. Also, a very special thanks to dookie, our lead developer – for building, testing and packaging most of the new tools in this release.

Together with our usual KDE and GNOME, 32/64 bit ISOs, we have released a single VMware Image (Gnome, 32 bit). For those requiring other VM flavors of BackTrack – building your own VMWare image is easy – instructions can be found in the BackTrack Wiki.

Lastly, if you’re looking for intensive, real world, hands on Penetration Testing Training – make sure to drop by Offensive Security Training, and learn the meaning of “TRY HARDER“.

For the insanely impatient, you can download the BackTrack 5 R3 release via torrent right now. Direct ISO downloads will be available once all our HTTP mirrors have synched, which should take a couple more hours. Once this happens, we will update our BackTrack.

How To Install