My friends used to plug their USB into their laptop and change their Windows OS into some fancy looking OS. A new screen used to load up with this dark, dragon kind of wallpaper. It looked nothing like Windows. I used to wonder, how is this even possible?
So I asked my friend, "what is this?"
He said, "this is Kali Linux."
I said, "wow."
That night I went back to my room and I could not stop thinking about it. I started digging more into this. What is Kali Linux? What is Linux even? Why does it look so different every time? That digging is what turned into this blog.
If you are also confused about Linux, distros, and why everyone's screen looks different — this one is for you. No fancy words, just simple English.
So what is Linux, really?
Windows is an operating system. Linux is also an operating system. That's it, that's the simple version.
But here's the twist that confused me at first: Windows is made by one company (Microsoft), so it always looks and works the same way on every laptop.
Linux is different. Linux is more like a recipe that anyone can take and cook their own way. So different people and groups took that same Linux recipe and made their own versions of it. Each version is called a distro (short for "distribution").
That is why your friend's USB had a totally different look than what you might have seen on YouTube. They were not using "Linux." They were using one specific distro, built by one specific group of people.
Why do they all look so different?
Every distro picks its own:
- Wallpaper and theme
- Set of pre-installed apps
- Way of installing software
- Target audience (some are for beginners, some for hackers, some for developers) So "Linux" is the engine. The distro is the entire car built around that engine. Same engine, totally different car every time.
The distro my friend showed me: Kali Linux
Kali Linux is a distro built specifically for cybersecurity and ethical hacking. That dragon-ish, dark wallpaper most people see for the first time is usually Kali.
What makes Kali special is not just the look. It comes pre-loaded with hundreds of security tools already installed — things used for testing networks, websites, and systems for weaknesses. People learning ethical hacking, doing CTF challenges, or studying for security certifications usually end up using Kali at some point.
It is not really built to be someone's everyday, daily-use laptop OS. It is more like a specialized toolbox.
Other distros I learned about along the way
Once I started digging, I realised Kali is just one tiny corner of a huge world. Here are the ones that came up again and again.
Ubuntu — the most popular Linux distro out there. Most tutorials and guides online assume you are using this one. Great starting point.
Linux Mint — built to feel familiar if you are coming from Windows. Taskbar, start menu, file manager, all feel close to what you already know. Very beginner-friendly.
Fedora — a bit more advanced, used by a lot of real developers, ships newer software versions.
Arch Linux — this one is the "build it yourself from scratch" distro. Nothing comes pre-installed, not even a desktop. You build your entire system piece by piece, manually. Massive learning curve, but you understand Linux deeply by the end of it.
Garuda Linux — this is the one that genuinely surprised me. Garuda is built on top of Arch, so it has Arch's power underneath. But instead of making you build everything from scratch, it comes already set up with a stunning, pre-themed desktop, animations, and effects out of the box. Basically: Arch's strength, without Arch's brutal setup process. If you want something that looks incredible on day one and still teaches you real Linux underneath, this is hard to beat.
What I am doing about it
Instead of picking just one and giving up on the rest, I am setting up a single bootable USB that can boot into different distros whenever I want, without touching my actual Windows installation at all. Windows stays exactly as it is. The USB is its own separate thing.
For now I am starting with Garuda Linux, because I want to actually learn Linux properly, not just stare at a pretty wallpaper. Once I am comfortable with the basics, Kali is next on the list, for the security side of things.
If you have ever seen a friend's laptop boot into something that looked nothing like Windows and wondered what was going on, hopefully this clears it up a little. It is not magic. It is just Linux, wearing a different outfit every time.
