I am switching to Linux. I have almost no idea what to do but I have used Kali to crack some WPAs (no questions asked). I would like to have the same tools that Kali incorporates, automatic updates maybe and I like the cutting edge Fedora mentality, especially if it gets me more involved in learning how to use Linux (possible future small business venture). What do you guys think?
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Why are you switching to Linux?
Would be easier to debate or recommend one. They are both very good distros.
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I would vote fedora, but I am actually going to say that you should go with ubuntu first and learn some basics before jumping into a more power user distro like fedora.
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Try both and pick the one you like. (War ended)
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I am sick of the Windows 10 spying and I don't need Windows other than Adobe or gaming.
I was going to go with Ubuntu but if I switch to Fedora, the syntax for basic(?) tasks is going to be all wrong and that is not what I would like to get into (apt vs yum is what comes first to my mind, although it should be really easy to switch if that is the only difference)
My heart says go with Fedora and be adventurous but my mind says go with Ubuntu and be safe. I am probably going with Fedora, although the possible business venture I mention will be running on Ubuntu LTS. I am trying both on virtual machines but haven't been running them for over a day each.
Well Fedora basiclly is sorta kinda aimed to more experianced users.
Fedora has allways been very strickt on their available software being foss.
So if you used to use some non free software and certain media codecs,
then you will have a harder time with Fedora.
But i think that @Eden is better in explaining this.
However they do start to become a bit more user friendly.
And wenn you install the rpm fusion free and non free repositories,
you should be able to find pretty much all software you need.
However Fedora doesnt come with an app store like Ubuntu as far as i know.
But they rather come with a gui package manager called yum extender, which might be a bit intimidating for new users to get used to.
But its basiclly very similar to something like synaptic on Ubuntu or pamac on Arch.
Package management from terminal DNF vs APT,
i dont think that it would be that hard to get used to both.
Ubuntu based distributions are more user friendly out of the box.
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The commands are similar enough that it's easy to learn, if on Fedora just replace apt-get with dnf and almost all the commands are the same, yeah there are some syntax differences with higher level commands but nothing that google can't solve for you.
I've used both and run a Ubuntu server but run Fedora on my daily driver (with Win X in a KVM) which is one of the major reasons I chose to use Fedora on my desktop, but there is nothing wrong with either distros and both have their place, you should give each a try and decide for yourself which you like.
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You know I will make it simple for you.
Fedora uses RPM it has its own issues. Its dependency errors are harder to fix for a new user. I started on fedora. I love and hate fedora.
Ubuntu is much more user friendly still. It has GUI's for most things you can do by command line which if your a gui kind of person.. go for it. You will like ubuntu but it may limit your freedom sometimes.
Pick your poison.. they both do essentially the same thing. Try both? hell you might like fedora more like I do..
Or if your a wild card and run OpenSUSE like I do nowadays as a daily driver.. thats fine too 
the point is they all accomplish what you need.. The big 3 (SUSE, *buntu and derivatives, Red hat and fedora) they have most if not all of the free software that you will need it all comes down to taste...
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I want to get hands down with the machine and learn some stuff. I don't want to use Linux as if it was Windows. Mind you, I am absolutely not ready for an Arch installation but I do want to get my hands somewhat dirty (as far as bash is concerned). I was also considering Debian but I don't think it would teach me as much stuff as the other distros would. As I said, I am looking at a startup that is going to use Linux and although I am probalby not going to configure any settings or write any programs, I would like to learn how it works and maybe have some contribution.
At the end of the day, Linux is Linux. Many new Linux users agonize over which distribution to use, as if a wrong decision will lock them into a lifetime of ridicule, shame and misery. The truth is that you don't yet know enough about Linux to make an informed decision. And, there are very few things that Fedora will do that Ubuntu won't and vice versa. Each distro typically has a different focus, or priority, though. so perhaps it is slightly easier to do virtualization on Fedora, while it is slightly easier to make dual GPUs work on Ubuntu. To the extent that a difference like this may exist, it is only a matter of time before these innovations are adopted by all distros.
IMHO, the biggest difference between distributions are their respective communities. Ubuntu, Mint and Elementary seek out new users who are unfamiliar with Linux and therefore they are much more tolerant of noob questions. Whereas with Arch, Gentoo and Debian, for instance, they will expect that you have read and made an attempt to understand the documentation, before asking questions. So, what is your personality; do you like to ask questions as they pop into your head, before doing two hours of research? If so, Ubuntu, or Mint may be a better fit for you while you are learning the basics.
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You can get the kali tools on fedora, and I find that fedora is more stable over all, note that I keep my machine on for days at a time.
apt-get vs. dnf
check out this spin of Fedora it has many of the tools kali Linux has.
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Fedora tends to be bleeding edge and has newer stuff in it, but tends to be a little flaky. Stuff that worked last week may break rather frustratingly after an update.
One annoyance with fedora i have is that you have to typically use third party repositories to get proprietary graphics drivers and codecs. Its not a big deal, but having that stuff in house is handy. Mixing repositories used to be a bad idea wtih RPM based distros (fedora, redhat,suse,etc) but that may have changed in the past 6 or 7 years (i think rpm5 was supposed to be a fuckton better than rpm4)
I remember fedora having pretty good graphical configuration tools for stuff (suse had great graphical tools for configuration IMO, it felt like "the linux box for windows admins")
Ubuntu tends to be a bit behind, releases come out every 6 months, and at the time of release are often 2-3 months out of date. Some packages are sometimes a couple of years old. If you stick to LTS releases, things will be boring and not bleeding edge, but unless you screw something up tinkering its usually pretty solid.
Its sort of a tossup if your focus is gaming. Ubuntu is popular, and typically the first choice for linux targets (steam sort of standardized on lts releases of ubuntu).... but because of update frequency and testing, a lot of times you'll wind up with old gfx drivers/xorg setups that may not perform as well as newer versions. You can often find a third party repository that will included the updated versions (but they may not be stable or nightly builds), or you could build/install the packages manually but if you're new to linux "here be dragons" .
Fedora is usually roughly compatible-ish with ubuntu, there is a package converter called alien that can sort of duct tape a package from fedora to run on ubuntu or the other way around (that may have changed or be a bit outdated, i haven't used fedora in a while) Being a bleeding edge distro you may get some performance benefits from newer packages that would require some tinkering in ubuntu.
TBH though, get a livecd or setup virtualbox and install both in a vm. Fuck around with them for a week and go with whichever one you liked best. I would say try to have some sort of "tasks/goals" (install program x, install graphics drivers, configure firewall) that you try to achieve on both so you can get a good a/b comparison.
75-90% of the stuff is probably going to wind up being exactly the same on the both (iirc fedora uses gnome, just like ubuntu, both have kde/xfce/mate variants as well) its the under the hood admin stuff where the differences come out.
You may even wanna try opensuse or kubuntu (kde variant of ubuntu).
I like apt and the config tools for ubuntu and debian derivatives but its really probably just a matter of what i've gotten used to.
Ditto. Fedora core 4. my windows xp installation disk was scratched and wouldn't install, but I had the disks burned for fedora and was planning on seeing what linux was all about. I've had some linux distro installed as my main OS on every pc I've had since.
Its basically trial by fire, but another option would be getting a raspberry pi and running it entirely remotely via ssh.
I was surprised how much i picked up by having my raspi hooked up to a second monitor, but no keyboard or mouse. I was running it entirely over ssh/vnc (after the intial setup of expanding fs and enabling ssh @ boot) from my desktop, seeing what i could get to build and run on the pi.
The relatively slow hardware will push you towards the leaner/lighter command line utilities that are extremely common among just about all linux distributions You may not know about all the bells and whistles of desktop environment x for distro y, but you'll be able to sit down in front of just about any linux box and get shit done.
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Pretty much this, all patent encumbered media codecs are in there and its pretty easy to enable (a few clicks).
It does, gnome software, it'll do distro upgrades, firmware updates (if supported) and supports flatpak as well i think (or will soon).
I wouldn't suggest yum extender unless there's a need, I've not used it in years and gnome software will do the trick.
It has. You'll find if you wanting patent encumbered media codes and/or nvidia drivers you can use rpmfusion or negativo17, you wont have issues with either of these.
There's also the supported copr repos.
Multiple repos are well supported these days, I run CentOS for example with a bunch of repos (EPEL, Extras, SCL, RPMFusion)
I've come across no packaging issues from using supported or approved repos.
A few people have said Ubuntu is easier, but im wondering if there's specific examples? except for binary drivers which I would suggest isn't easier, just (maybe) faster to install.
You said about running pentesting/networking testing tools, whats your requirements for this? And what system are you installing on?
I almost always run Kali as a VM regardless and just use that for that kind of work as it has everything you need. the Fedora Security spin is alright but Kali will beat any security based distro as it has everything from tools to the scripts you need etc.
Fedora can do this if you want it to (dnf-automatic)
Fedora is upstream from RHEL and Red Hat tend to use a Fedora release as a base for their Distro when they come out with new versions so one possible +1 for using Fedora is if you think you'll end up working on enterprise systems in any fashion as you'll be ahead of the curve on default tools.
Fedora is the second largest used Linux distro here in this community, behind the Ubuntu collective (Ubuntu and all *buntu variants) so you'd be in good company.
What do you want to know about Fedora?
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Whoops you are of course totally right.
Totally forgot about Gnome software center or Discover on the KDE plasma desktop.
my bad. 
So basically @Eden answered all the Fedora questions there is !
my gtx 970 is giving fits under 4.10.15 tho'
if you even think between fedora and ubuntu, take ubuntu - kids love broken spyware filled systems.
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I'll throw this out there for you, if you want to learn, get your hands dirty, want to run Linux but need Windows for gaming, why not do want several of us have done and that is a hardware pass-through? IMHO there is only a couple distros that make it easily doable and Fedora is one of them.
If you have the hardware, and resources (memory, CPU cores, and a spare GPU) it's a fun and valuable project that gives you the best of both worlds, more control over Windows since it is containerized running in a VM, has all the benefits (for the most part) that bare metal installs give you, and avoids dual booting.
It is a excellent way to learn Linux while keeping a Windows desktop close at hand for the times you need it, yes it is a higher level project than most beginners want to tackle, and it requires hardware to share (the more the better), and of course you need a platform (CPU & MB) that supports virtualization 100%.
Like I said......just throwing it out there for you to consider. 
I currently have a 4770K which does not support VT-d.. I am looking into assembling a Ryzen system but that also has issues with the IOMMU groups so I pretty much have to dual boot in the meantime unfortunately
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