Kali Linux vs. Remote Desktop Services

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Kali Linux
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
Kali Linux is an open source, advanced penetration testing platform supported by Offensive Security headquartered in New York.N/A
Remote Desktop Services
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Remote Desktop Services from Microsoft is virtual desktop and remote user session technology.N/A
Pricing
Kali LinuxRemote Desktop Services
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Kali LinuxRemote Desktop Services
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Kali LinuxRemote Desktop Services
Features
Kali LinuxRemote Desktop Services
Remote Administration
Comparison of Remote Administration features of Product A and Product B
Kali Linux
-
Ratings
Remote Desktop Services
5.7
4 Ratings
34% below category average
Screen sharing00 Ratings7.74 Ratings
File transfer00 Ratings6.54 Ratings
Instant message00 Ratings1.01 Ratings
Secure remote access with Smart Card authentication00 Ratings6.72 Ratings
Access to sleeping/powered-off computers00 Ratings3.42 Ratings
Over-the-Internet remote session00 Ratings5.74 Ratings
Initiate remote control from mobile00 Ratings5.63 Ratings
Remote management of servers & workstations00 Ratings7.03 Ratings
Remote Active Directory® management00 Ratings7.53 Ratings
Centralized management dashboard00 Ratings5.63 Ratings
Session record00 Ratings5.83 Ratings
Monitoring and Alerts00 Ratings5.63 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Kali LinuxRemote Desktop Services
Small Businesses

No answers on this topic

Getscreen.me
Getscreen.me
Score 9.7 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Veracode
Veracode
Score 9.2 out of 10
Remote Desktop Manager
Remote Desktop Manager
Score 9.4 out of 10
Enterprises
Veracode
Veracode
Score 9.2 out of 10
Remote Desktop Manager
Remote Desktop Manager
Score 9.4 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Kali LinuxRemote Desktop Services
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(6 ratings)
8.4
(18 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.3
(1 ratings)
6.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
6.0
(3 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
3.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Kali LinuxRemote Desktop Services
Likelihood to Recommend
Offensive Security
Kali is quite honestly appropriate for use on a Test Lab, a Virtual Machine, it will even run on a Raspberry Pi. It is the most popular tool used in most all training courses. It can be uses in home labs, work labs and production environments to perform real life scans for vulnerabilities among other things. It is the most popular tool for Cybersecurity tool.
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Microsoft
Remote Desktop Services provides access to work environments from any device. This allows us to ensure business continuity in case of disaster. It provides admins more control over access and security. Remote Desktop Services simplifies software updates and compliance management by reducing the need to act on end users devices.
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Pros
Offensive Security
  • Provides high security.
  • Does great job with penetration testing.
  • Has good number of testing tools with in.
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Microsoft
  • When you connect with RDS, everything looks and feels (and is) exactly like you're sitting at that desktop. This is great for us and for users.
  • You can sign in with RDS and the desktop will be the same as when you left it (if you choose to set it up that way).
  • Although they take some setup, RemoteApps are a very handy way to let users access a program without requiring them to actually connect to a remote desktop on the server.
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Cons
Offensive Security
  • Usage wise, it is tough for use by beginners. Can be improved.
  • With Kali Linux have noticed driver related issues especially with Nvidia graphics cards.
  • Kali Linux can be improved for use as a day to day OS.
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Microsoft
  • Remote Desktop Services currently does not support multiple monitors on the terminal server. Unlike other applications such as Teamviewer, there's no feature to toggle between multiple screens even if they were connected to the terminal server.
  • Remote Desktop Services should provide an option to scale up or down the screen size after a connection is established. Currently you can only adjust the screen size prior to a connection is established. So you'll have to take a best guess at what display screen resolution will fit best on your screen.
  • Remote Desktop Services should offer some kind of menu to send special key strokes like Ctrl+Alt+Del to the terminal server. Currently the substitute for that particular combination is Ctrl+Alt+End. But I have yet to discover a replacement for other combination keystrokes such as Alt+PrintScrn.
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Usability
Offensive Security
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
The initial setup for Remote Desktop Services is complex, and licensing is costly. Each user connects to their virtual desktop hosted by a single server or group of servers, so a change or issue with servers quickly impacts every single user at the same time. Aside from that, users appreciate seeing their same personal desktop from any device or geographical location.
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Performance
Offensive Security
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
There are some third party tools available that allow you to manage multiple connections.
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Support Rating
Offensive Security
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
As with any Microsoft Server product, support for Remote Desktop Services requires a paid support package. These are license-based and very costly, on top of the already costly product licensing. Microsoft's licensing is complicated to begin with, so setting up licensing alone essentially requires a licensing expert's counsel. There is community documentation and support available on Microsoft websites, as well as community websites.
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Alternatives Considered
Offensive Security
The hard feature to be beat Kali with is the amount of preinstalled tools. I.e. Ubuntu is great but you would have to install each and every tool separately
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Microsoft
We selected Remote Desktop Services based upon price alone. Other solutions on the market are significantly more expensive, but if your company can foot the bill you should seriously consider products that have been on the market for longer. The lack of an ability to easily upgrade farm servers has been a challenge for us - although it is still faster than updating an application on 2000+ machines. The lack of a centralized management console in 2008 R2 is also challenging, but you get by with the tools available to you. If you don't have the money to spend on Citrix or VMWare Horizon, Remote Desktop Services is a decent replacement.
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Return on Investment
Offensive Security
  • Till now Kali Linux have not made a single penny negative impact on our companies business , its so powerful and useful at the same time for our company.
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Microsoft
  • Allowed remote users access from home
  • Shared file access for multipolar users from a centralized location
  • Cost to add additional users when maxed out
  • Purchase multiple licenses for programs to run in virtual machines. Or unable to run on a virtual machine
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ScreenShots