Linux

It doesn't matter which Linux distribution you use

July 13, 2020, Reading time: 4 minutes

Focus on yourself instead of what other people do or use. What matters is how good you feel about it.

Okay, I’m talking about Linux now. 😃

Installing Kali Linux doesn’t make you a hacker, not even using it. It mainly is about the tools that are installed. You can also install the same tools on a Ubuntu or almost any other Linux distributions.

Even in job interviews, they ask if you use Kali Linux, which I am very surprised about.

A better question would be, are you using Linux? And, do you know how to use various “hacking” tools like Metasploit, Wireshark, John the Ripper, Aircrack-ng, or a Burp Suite, and so on.

Maybe a good idea to tell how I got started using Linux myself.

Years ago I had several websites, one of them was a WordPress webshop with about 40.000 products. I hosted this on a shared web hosting (This means that you have to share the server with a lot of other websites). but I paid a lot for that at the time, because I paid for a Pro - Pro host.

What I mean by the latter is that I had the most expensive web host out there. All false promises that were not kept. Obviously, I forgot to read the terms and conditions, which a normal person regularly skips. (I usually do)

To cut a very long story and not such a very bright side of me… Because I had come into a conflict with them, it sometimes happens that one of their servers suddenly did stop and shuts down, that was at that time.

Okay, now I was facing a very big challenge. Now what …

I have “A” website with so many products

In the meantime, I read the conditions at many other shared web hosting companies and they all came to the same conditions. So that was not an option anymore, because they’re all the same anyway.

At the time, I couldn’t afford many other options. So, there was really only one cheap solution possible.

Try to make my own web server “At Home”

But how?

Making the perfect server

First, I looked for a suitable computer that could function as a server. That computer was an old Compaq. Don’t ask me about the rest of the specifications… I still have this in the meantime very old computer, in a corner of my office. 😃

And then my search started to set up a web server. I wanted the best, the most possibilities, and the fastest web server out there, and it had to be for free as well.

My Linux discovery was started

And I personally think this was the best way to learn.

How many different Linux servers I had set up, no idea, but lots of them. I was busy with it for day and night. Regularly I would have liked to throw my computer out the window.

A small selection of what I had tried and installed, CentOS, Debian, Ubuntu, Lubuntu, Gentoo, Fedora, and your name it.

But by installing a server doesn’t mean that you are done. Then the fun just begins. You can also go in all directions with this. Minimal or a complete web host with everything on it. There are so many options.

I would like to show some options in the future and discuss them here on BullsEye0.com

It went wrong regularly, and then I had to start all over again. But you know what, I enjoyed discovering all-new the things, and soon I noticed that you could do miracles with Linux. (And make the most beautiful things)

Some of the the things that had to be on the server:

  • Apache or Nginx
  • SSH Server
  • Mail server
  • DNS server
  • phpMyAdmin
  • FTP
  • PHP
  • Database
  • SSL
  • Firewall

Since I kept repeating so much and trying so many different Linux distributions and installing so many things, I learned a lot from that. Meanwhile, I replaced all Windows OS I had on the other computers for Linux.

Now I don’t want to say that you have to do the same to learn Linux.

What I mean is that you have to look further. Maybe try something different. Not everything depends on the Linux distribution you use.

That there is so much possible, that when you look further, you learn other things and thus broaden your horizons.

The bottom line is that you enjoy what you do, have some fun, with any “Linux” Operating System.

Opgedragen aan Marcel Calvelage, een Linux man, een goeie vriend. “Like a bomb” -Rust zacht lieve Marcel xxx

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