Before beginning this post personal preference is the end result. However that’s not what this post is about, rather its to share thoughts and experiences using either or both these distros.
I’m not biased, in fact, I use many many pen-testing distributions (Arch, RedHat, Athena, Kali and yes Parrot).
Here are my findings as well as others:
- Kali is more stable, reliable, and often faster ***
- Kali is just as versatile as Parrot from Live USB to the large Everything pkg
- Kali has more support than Parrot
*** Recently a poll was conducted and other pen-testers voiced that they too found Kali to be more stable, reliable, and faster. If you do any search to confirm this you’ll find the results stating Parrot to be just as fast. This isn’t the case in the field. 🐲
The poll also ranked the best pen-testing hacking distos. Kali took first. Parrot beat my beloved BlackArch which now with Windows integration of WSL fell to Windows and came in dead last.
Regardless, a poll isn’t a reliable nor valid confirmation of facts. Parrot has a much smaller footprint and uses much less resources. Parrot comes fully stacked with tools and is more fluid as a daily driver than Kali. It’s a “pretty” OS and for those that like the rich and dynamic colors on their OS and even in their terminal with many customizations on deck, Parrot has that covered. 🦜
What is YOUR opinion/thoughts/experience?