Kali 2019.4 new themes 🐉
Today Kali Linux 2019.4 just launched, and I'm so excited to announce that, for the last two months, I've been working together with the Kali team developing all its new look. The first noticeable change is the move from Gnome to Xfce as the default desktop. This change was made to make default Kali more comfortable for low resource computers, as it is also commonly used on small ARM devices that don't have as high performance as an average desktop.
If you don't want to leave Gnome, don't worry. Kali now offers a Gnome build for you with some of the new desktop themes. As this release was focused on the Xfce DE change, most of the latest changes were intended for this desktop. For next releases, more changes will be available for all kali flavors to get them "close" to a similar user experience no matter the environment you run.
Kali 2019.4 Updates
2019.4 includes some exciting new updates:- A new default desktop environment, Xfce
- New GTK3 theme (for Gnome and Xfce)
- Introduction of “Kali Undercover” mode
- Kali Documentation has a new home and is now Git powered
- Public Packaging – getting your tools into Kali
- Kali NetHunter KeX – Full Kali desktop on Android
- BTRFS during setup
- Added PowerShell
- The kernel is upgraded to version 5.3.9
- … Plus the normal bugs fixes and updates.
How to restore the new Kali appearance
If you are using a previous Kali installation with Xfce, you may want to try the new redesign. This script can be useful as well if you want to revert all the changes you made to your desktop.
rm -rf ~/.config/xfce4 pkill -u $(whoami)
If you want to restore not only Xfce but all the app settings remove completely ~/.config
If you want not only to restore the DE but to completely wipe your user settings and modification remove ~/.config ~/.cache ~/.local
After this you will need to reboot your system to see the changes.
Boot menu
Boot animation
Login screen
Custom Xfce panel and menu
Dark theme
Light theme
GTK3 and GTK2 themes
Color-schemes and Fira Code
Another cool feature that comes with this new Kali release is the support of Fira Code font for both the text editor and the terminal. Fira Code makes use of font ligatures to join multiple characters into a single logical symbol. Unfortunately, GTK terminals don't support font ligatures, so the default terminal has been replaced with qterminal.
Undercover Mode
NOUP that isn't windows!! Impressed? 😉
The picture above shows Kali Linux using the new Undercover Mode that allows you to be unnoticed with just a simple click. When you run it while in normal mode, it will save all your desktop settings and enable this 'incognito' mode to make your desktop look as similar as possible to Windows 10. Opening it again will restore all your previous desktop appearance so that you won't lose any of your beloved customizations.
Imagine you are working in a public place; hacking with a giant dragon on your wallpaper seems a bit obvious, and people might get curious (or angry). For sure, not the best situation if you want to stay unseen, so the Kali team proposed an undercover mode, and I was encharged of its development. The themes are a modification of Elbullazul Windows 10 ones, which I added a script to be able to save and restore all the desktop settings.
Wallpapers
Here you have it 😌, all the new Kali 2019.4 Wallpapers uncompressed and in 4k resolution
