Seriously? You think hackers only use Linux? Nope! No! That’s a false assumption…

You see, hackers use whatever they have available. This can be Windows, FreeBSD, MacOS, Linux, Arduino, VMS, HP-UX, AS-400, OS/X, MS-DOS or many of the other operating systems. They don’t focus on a single operating system as that would limit them. No, they use everything they can!

One of the things hackers do is to try and understand how everything works. And while Linux is practical as it is fully open source and shows how your PC works internally, it’s just not enough to learn. If you want to hack a Windows system then you need to understand Windows. If you want to hack some mainframe system then you need to understand what the mainframe is using. You need to adopt to whatever your target is.

Now, the Linux kernel is a practical one to use for the production of hacking tools. You get the kernel, add your own distribution on top of it, include various hacking tools and install it on a Raspberry Pi and you’d have a small, portable hacking device. But you can also use a smartphone for this. Or a laptop with Windows. Or even a MacBook…

For hackers, the operating system is not important. Neither is the hardware. They seek knowledge everywhere…

Except for one minor detail: both Windows als MacOS are prebuilt systems that can include various tracking tools for these manufacturers. They tend to collect user data and send it back to headquarters. Some Linux distributions also do similar things. But if you want to do something illegal through hacking then having your system identified by manufacturers puts you at a greater risk. By using the Linux kernel or another open source microkernel, you can avoid these snooping companies and thus have less risks of getting caught. Even then, you’re not absolutely secure but law enforcement needs to find more resources to find you, and they generally don’t want to invest that many resources. (Unless you’re dangerous or did a lot of damage!)