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Parrot RSS Feed DistroWatch.com: Parrot

Parrot


Last Update: 2025-12-24 06:30 UTC


Parrot (formerly Parrot Security OS) is a Debian-based, security-oriented distribution featuring a collection of utilities designed for penetration testing, computer forensics, reverse engineering, hacking, privacy, anonymity and cryptography. The product, developed by Frozenbox, comes with MATE as the default desktop environment.

Popularity (hits per day): 12 months: 43 (255), 6 months: 46 (281), 3 months: 43 (307), 4 weeks: 21 (520), 1 week: 40 (380)

Average visitor rating: 8.0/10 from 58 review(s).


Parrot Summary
Distribution Parrot (formerly Parrot Security OS)
Home Page https://parrotsec.org/
Mailing Lists --
User Forums https://community.parrotsec.org/
Alternative User Forums https://parrotsec.org/docs/community.html
Documentation https://parrotsec.org/docs
Screenshots DistroWatch Gallery
Screencasts
Download Mirrors https://parrotsec.org/download/
Bug Tracker --
Related Websites  
Reviews  
Where To Donate, Buy or Try

Recent Related News and Releases
  Releases announcements with download links and checksums:
 • 2025-12-24: Distribution Release: Parrot 7.0
 • 2025-12-09: Development Release: Parrot 7.0 Beta
 • 2025-07-07: Distribution Release: Parrot 6.4
 • 2025-02-01: Distribution Release: Parrot 6.3
 • 2024-10-23: Distribution Release: Parrot 6.2
 • 2024-06-05: Distribution Release: Parrot 6.1
 • 2024-01-24: Distribution Release: Parrot 6.0
 • 2023-02-15: Distribution Release: Parrot 5.2
 • 2022-03-27: Distribution Release: Parrot 5.0
 • 2021-03-29: Distribution Release: Parrot 4.11
 • 2020-08-17: Distribution Release: Parrot 4.10
 • 2020-04-30: Distribution Release: Parrot 4.9
 • More Parrot releases...

Table Notes and Explanations

(Please refer to the table below.)
  • Select view:
  • To compare the software in this project to the software available in other distributions, please see our Compare Packages page.
  • Notes: In case where multiple versions of a package are shipped with a distribution, only the default version appears in the table. For indication about the GNOME version, please check the "nautilus" and "gnome-shell" packages. The Apache web server is listed as "httpd" and the Linux kernel is listed as "linux". The KDE desktop is represented by the "plasma-desktop" package and the Xfce desktop by the "xfdesktop" package.
  • Colour scheme: green text = latest stable version, red text = development or beta version. The function determining beta versions is not 100% reliable due to a wide variety of versioning schemes.
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Feature 7.0 6.4 5.3 4.11.1 3.11 2.2.1
Release Date 2025-12-23 2025-07-07 2023-05-03 2021-04-14 2018-01-28 2016-05-16
End Of Life            
Price (US$) Free Free Free Free Free Free
Image Size (MB) 3600-7700 2500-5400 2400-4900 1600-4000 1500-3700  
Free Download IMG, ISO, OVA, QCOW2, UTM, VMDK ISO, OVA, QCOW2, VMDK ISO ISO ISO ISO
Installation   Calamares        
Default Desktop KDE Plasma MATE MATE KDE Plasma, MATE MATE MATE
Default Browser Firefox ESR Chromium, Firefox ESR Firefox ESR Firefox Firefox Firefox
Package Management DEB, Flatpak DEB, Flatpak DEB DEB DEB DEB
Release Model Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed
Office Suite LibreOffice LibreOffice LibreOffice LibreOffice GOffice GOffice
Processor Architecture aarch64, riscv64, x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 i686, x86_64 i686, x86_64
Init Software systemd systemd systemd systemd systemd SysV
Journaled File Systems Btrfs, ext4, JFS, ReiserFS, XFS Btrfs, ext4, JFS, ReiserFS, XFS Btrfs, ext4, JFS, ReiserFS, XFS Btrfs, ext4 Btrfs, ext4 Btrfs, ext4
Multilingual en en en en en en
Asian Language Support            
Full Package List 7.0 6.4 5.3 4.11.1 3.11 2.2.1
Package 7.0 6.4 5.3 4.11.1 3.11 2.2.1
alsa-lib (1.2.15.1) 1.2.14 1.2.8 1.2.4 1.2.4 1.1.3 1.0.28
amdgpu (25.0.0) 23.0.0 23.0.0 19.1.0 19.1.0 -- --
apparmor (4.1.2) 4.1.0 3.0.8 2.13.6 2.13.6 2.12 --
apt (3.1.12) 3.0.3 2.6.1 2.2.4 2.2.2 1.6alpha7 1.0.9.10
bash (5.3) 5.2.37 5.2.15 5.1 5.1 4.4 4.3
bind (9.20.17) -- -- -- -- -- --
chromium (143.0.7499.169) -- 138.0.7204.49 -- -- -- --
cinnamon (6.6.3) -- -- -- -- -- --
cups (2.4.16) 2.4.10 2.4.2 2.3.3 2.3.3 2.2.6 1.7.5
e2fsprogs (1.47.3) 1.47.2 1.47.2 1.46.6 1.46.2 1.43.8 1.42.12
ffmpeg (8.0.1) 7.1.3 5.1.6 4.3.5 4.3.2 3.4.1 --
firefox (146.0.1) 140.6.0 140.0 102.10.0 87.0 58.0 38.6.1
flatpak (1.16.2) 1.16.1 1.16.1 -- -- -- --
freetype (2.14.1) 2.13.3 2.12.1 2.10.4 2.10.4 2.8.1 2.5.2
gcc (15.2.0) 14.2.0 12.2.0 10.2.1 10.2.1 7.2.0 4.9.2
gimp (3.0.6) 3.0.4 2.10.34 2.10.22 2.10.22 -- --
git (2.52.0) 2.47.3 2.39.5 2.39.2 2.30.2 2.15.1 2.1.4
glibc (2.42) 2.41 2.36 2.31 2.31 2.26 2.19
gnome-shell (49.2) -- -- -- -- -- --
grub (2.12) 2.12 2.12 -- -- -- 2.02beta2
gtk (4.20.3) 4.18.6 4.8.3 3.24.24 3.24.24 3.22.26 3.14.5
httpd (2.4.66) 2.4.65 2.4.62 2.4.56 2.4.46 2.4.29 2.4.10
inkscape (1.4.3) -- -- -- -- -- --
kmod (34.2) 34.2 30 28 28 25 18
krita (5.2.14) -- -- -- -- -- --
LibreOffice (25.8.4) 25.2.3 25.2.3 7.4.5 7.0.4 5.4.3 --
Package 7.0 6.4 5.3 4.11.1 3.11 2.2.1
libselinux (3.9) 3.8.1 3.4 3.1 3.1 2.7 2.3
linux (6.18.3) 6.12.57 6.12.32 6.1.15 5.10.28 4.14.13 4.3.3
mariadb (12.1.2) 11.8.3 10.11.13 -- -- 10.1.26 --
mate-desktop (1.28.2) -- 1.26.0 1.24.1 1.24.1 1.18.0 1.8.1
mesa (25.3.3) 25.0.7 25.0.4 20.3.5 20.3.4 17.3.3 10.3.2
mysql (9.5.0) -- -- -- -- -- --
nautilus (49.2) -- -- -- -- -- --
NVIDIA (590.48.01) -- -- -- -- -- --
openjdk (25) 25.0.1 17.0.15 17.0.6 11.0.11 8u151 7u95
openssh (10.2p1) 10.0p1 10.0p1 8.4p1 8.4p1 7.6p1 6.7p1
openssl (3.6.0) 3.5.4 3.0.16 1.1.1n 1.1.1k 1.1.0g 1.0.1k
perl (5.42.0) 5.40.1 5.36.0 5.32.1 5.32.1 5.26.1 5.20.2
php (8.5.1) 8.4.16 8.2.28 7.4.33 7.4.15 7.0.27 5.6.14
plasma-desktop (6.5.4) 6.3.6 -- -- 5.20.5 -- --
postfix (3.10.7) -- -- -- -- -- --
postgresql (18.1) 17.6 15.13 13.10 13.2 10.1 9.4.6
Python (3.14.2) 3.13.5 3.11.2 3.9.2 3.9.2 2.7.14 2.7.9
qt (6.10.1) 6.8.2 5.15.8 5.15.2 5.15.2 5.9.2 4.8.6
samba (4.23.4) 4.22.6 4.22.2 4.17.7 4.13.5 4.7.4 4.1.17
systemd (259) 257.9 254.26 252.5 247.3 236 215
thunderbird (146.0.1) -- -- -- -- -- --
vim (9.1) 9.1 9.0 8.2 8.2 8.0 7.4
vlc (3.0.23) 3.0.22 3.0.21 3.0.18 3.0.12 3.0.0rc6 2.2.0rc2
wayland (1.24.0) 1.23.1 1.23.0 1.18.0 1.18.0 1.14.0 1.6.0
xfdesktop (4.20.1) -- -- -- -- -- --
xorg-server (21.1.21) 21.1.16 21.1.7 1.20.11 1.20.10 1.19.5 1.17.2

Reader Ratings
Reader supplied reviews for Parrot

Average rating
8.0
from 58 review(s)



What are your thoughts on Parrot?
Please include a few pros and a few cons, along with your overall impression of the operating system.
Our FAQ page has tips on writing a good mini-review.

Version:

Rating:    out of 10

Your review (minimum 250 words):




Past reviews - sort by:

Version: 7.0
Rating: 8
Date: 2025-12-29
Votes: 0


Wow. I mean, WOW. I love this distro. It is almost perfect. What a nice KDE configuration.
Parrot is based on Debian, and as thus, suffers the same problem: older software.
My NVidia card now used the 590 driver, but Debian/Parrot still uses the old 550 driver.
This results in the fact that just after installation, Parrot uses Wayland, but changes to x11 after upgrade.
This is logic. Some security tools still do not work under wayland, so changing to x11 makes sense in a way.
Maybe Parrot should consider a Ubuntu base? Especially for the Home Edition?


Was this review helpful? Yes No
Version: 6.4
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-10-17
Votes: 8


6.4 runs fine on my old PC, because what I need it for in everyday life, security and speed, is a must in any operating system.
Working with terminals has actually become a bit of an everyday solution and you feel more secure, even though the case may be the opposite.
When you look at win11, there are only advertisements and purchase schemes that you are of course not interested in.
So you feel more free when you are on a linux operating system and believe that Perrot gives you all the options to decide for yourself about your PC.
But nothing is ever safe, so it is good that Perrot is equipped with a vpn solution if you need it.


Was this review helpful? Yes No
Version: 6.4
Rating: 7
Date: 2025-09-12
Votes: 1


It has the most beautiful interface of any operating system I've seen. Unfortunately, its not compatible with secure boot and I am very passionate about security (from a blue team perspective......) I tried to work around that to sign my own kernel but it ended up bricking parrot. I am very experienced in IT--- but newer to Linux, so that could have been all on me, but regardless--- its unfortunate. Wish it had a bit more hardening and defensive tooling.

The interface is amazing. The color scheme on the CLI is so gorgeous, and the whole GUI experience is perfect.
I have to admit though, most of the tools do not work out of the box-- from a fresh install on the ISO. (This could be due to my noob linux status as well. I've only been using linux as my daily driver for about 6 months but I have prior work experience with Red Hat.)

Anyways, its beautiful and I'm a huge fan!


Was this review helpful? Yes No

See all 58 reader reviews of Parrot...



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