Could a complete beginner learn kali from scratch,

or

would a foundation in a more simple linux distro, coding language be a necessary prerequisite?

figure you l33t dawgz could point a brother in the right direction.

{mods kindly move this thread to a more appropriate subforum}

xElverkonge

I consider myself an advanced beginner, but you could look into Manjaro:

http://manjaro.org/

It's a little bit more demanding than Ubuntu, but still beginner stuff. Take their desktop as a good omen.

The l33t dawgz I've met use Gentoo or Debian. But I understand that a Linux virgin seeks a Linux that is related to penetration. SCNR

I wouldn't recommend Kali for a virgin, something like Linux mint would be a better place to start.

It doesn't have to be mint, there's plenty to pick from these days.

I'd install a user friendly OS like mint & then install Virtual Box and evaluate different distros as virtual machines to get a feel for them.

Once you learn your way around a terminal then Kali would be of infinitely more value to you.

I second Hieronymous' recommendation. I ran Ubuntu for many years and switched to Mint about two years ago, on Mac architecture - no less, and have been very happy with it thusfar.

It really all depends on your hardware and needs. What type of 'work' do you wish to do on your machine? If you're interested in netsec and pen testing then you might read up on Backtrack; general desktop work and internet-based applications - Ubuntu or Mint; lightweight OS for older hardware - Kubuntu; pretty and lightweight - elementary OS, etc. These are just examples to get you thinking.