Hey guys,
I know this has been done to death, but can anyone recommend a good linux distro for hacking? I tend to use Backtrack, either as a live CD or installed on VMware, but what I'm looking for is something with a bang up to date package repository. Do any of the existing mainstream distros have a package source dedicated to the latest security tools? I'm getting frustrated with how quickly my Backtrack install is getting out of date.

Jim

I don't know that you'll be able to find exactly what you're looking for, at least from the sounds of it. You're likely in all cases going to need to add/update some packages to whichever distro you end up going with.

The other thing you should consider, is do the older versions do what you need them to do? If they work, then what's really the problem? I guess it's nice to have the most up-to-date stuff and all, but if they're really going to give you the same results (considering the older version does), then I don't see any need to go through the extra work of upgrading until it's absolutely needed. Just my thoughts anyway...

Thanks for the replies, and sorry to beat this dead horse one more time. I guess I'm looking for a package repository for bleeding edge tools. If one does not exist, maybe I'll create one for my favorite distros :-)

Jim

Gentoo's portage is awfully good about packages being out there that are bleeding edge, particularly for hacking, and  particularly if you run ~x86 ("experimental")  for the packages of interest (portage.keywords if memory serves).

Because Gentoo like to compile from source (which is quite slick), it's not something you'll be terribly happy with as a vmware guest though, depending on the speed of your machine in the event you need to chunk through big packages like window managers and the like.