Recently, Offensive Security announced the third release from the Kali Linux 2020 series, which brings users some new features, as well as some improvements to the operating system.
One of the most important features added to Kali Linux is the so-called ZSH Shell (or Z Shell). For experienced users of the operating system, it is known that the default Shell of the system is BASH (Bourne Again Shell). However, the development team aims to replace BASH in the next versions of Kali.
For those who are not familiar, ZSH Shell is an improved version of BASH, which contains some improvements, while also having better performance. According to the development team, the next version of the operating system (2020.4) will include ZSH as the default Shell.
Another important feature of the new version is automatic HiDPI support. Lately, many operating systems such as Ubuntu 20.04 and Linux Mint 20have included HiDPI support. However, setting up the support correctly requires a lot of patience.
For the same reason, the latest version of Kali Linux includes “kali-hidpi-mode” which automatically adjusts your displays, without you having to mess with manual settings. To enable this feature, you simply need to find and open “kali-hidpi-mode”, from the operating system’s home menu.
In addition to the new support, Kali Linux 2020.3 also brings some new packages. For example, the release includes the new Win-KeX package, which significantly improves the performance of Windows plus Kali Desktop. You can easily install the new package by simply typing the following command:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y kali-win-kex
Once the package is installed, you can use it by typing kxe. After invoking the application, the system will display the Kali graphical environment, which runs on WSL2 (Windows Subsystem for Linux 2).
Apart from these, there are some other improvements in Kali Linux, such as support for the net-hunter version from Nokia 3.1 and Nokia 6.1 devices. In addition, the latest version of the operating system also brings many improvements for ARM systems. For example, the version for ARM devices now contains the kali-linux-default metapackages, while its size has been significantly reduced.
Installing Kali Linux 2020.03:
If you are using one of the previous versions of the system, you can easily upgrade by simply typing the command:
sudo apt update && sudo apt -y full-upgrade
However, if you want to perform a clean installation of the operating system, you can download the installation file from the official Kali Linux page.
