It began out of necessity for lead Kali developer Mati Aharoni (known as muts in the community).
Where did the idea for Kali come from?
Were you trying to solve a problem you’d experienced, or did the inspiration come from somewhere else?
(I actuallywasallowed to bring a laptop onsite, however it would be taken on exit).
At the end of the engagement, I would be able to destroy the CD without too much heart-ache.
And so I started a Linux Security based Distribution, ten years ago!
After you came up with the idea, what was the next step?
This meant tearing down everything we had done to that point, and starting afresh.
His assistance proved to be invaluable to our project and crucial to the success of the distribution.
How did you choose which platforms to target and which to ignore or wait on?
I’ll answer this in regards to ourKali Linux ARM images.
Imagine that: a powerful hacking computer, battery-powered, in your pocket.
So how do we decide what punch in of ARM hardware to target ?
That depends on several thingsavailability being the main obstacle.
What was your biggest roadblock and how did you overcome it?
One of our biggest concerns with the move fromBackTrackto Kali was the rebranding we had to do.
To suddenly change this around would undoubtedly be hectic and confusing for our users.
What was their name beforehand?"
What was launch like for you?
The launch of Kali Linux went better than we could ever have hoped for.
How do you handle user requests and criticisms effectively?
Over the years we have become much more patient with opinionated users and criticism at large.
Now, how do you split time between developing new features and managing existing ones?
In Kali, this question can be applied to the tools and features we provide in our distribution.
We don’t have a specific methodology for this.
What advice would you give to others that want to take on a similar project?
In the world of Unix-derived operating systems, we all stand on the shoulders of giants.
The biggest advice I would have is “don’t be afraid to leverage existing infrastructure where possible.”
This interview has been edited for clarity.
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