Science and technology

Our favourite Linux instructions to make use of only for enjoyable

In November, we shared the article 7 Linux commands to use just for fun and requested you to inform us what “for fun” Linux command you suggest—and why?

Some Opensource.com contributors shared their favorites beneath.


My favorites:

  • cowsay, in fact!
  • fortune, my favourite “hack” was having the motd when customers linked be a humorous fortune.
  • sl, a steam locomotive in your terminal.
  • xsnow, one other root XWindow hack, this command places stress-free snowfall over your workspace, with accumulation on the highest of open home windows.
  • GNOME Easter eggs, in GNOME 2, Alt+F2 (opening the run dialog) and getting into “free the fish” launched Wanda the Fish onto your root window. Wanda would wander round, scurrying off (for some time) if you happen to clicked on her.

~Dave Neary


My day begins with these:

fortunecowsay, lolcat 

Followed by curl wttr.in

Now we will have a espresso 😉

~Tomasz Waraksa


cmatrix , as a result of from time to time you’re feeling such as you’re jacked into the machine.

~Gary Smith


Telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl.

It’s not precisely Linux-specific however it is kinda superior.

~John ‘Warthog9’ Hawley


Xroach was a cool add-on on your window supervisor within the Nineteen Nineties. It was lots of enjoyable with Tab Window Manager (TWM) and F Virtual Window Manager (FVWM) on the time, however I have not used it in years. When you ran Xroach, it added little cockroaches that “lived” underneath your home windows. When you moved a window or closed it, the roaches would scamper to cover underneath one other window or run off the display screen. Just a kind of little methods to make the desktop extra enjoyable.

Looks like there is a modern port of Xroach that I’ll should check out someday.

~Jim Hall


I labored as a pc science TA within the late 90s, and we had Sun Sparc workstations in our pc lab. Sometimes college students would stroll away throughout lab time with out locking the display screen. Every occasionally, I might execute xroach &; clear on the terminal after they weren’t wanting.  

XRoach is an effective one. Cockroaches cover underneath the home windows, and scurry across the display screen after which underneath one other window while you transfer a window.  

~Ann Marie Fred


One of my favorites is hollywood. Check it out here.

Just run it and begin jamming on the keys, you’ll persuade everybody at Starbucks that you take down the NSA.

~Clint Byrum

Jim Hall responded to this one with:

That’s superior! It jogs my memory of Hacker Typer—it is a web site as an alternative of a terminal program. Just convey up the positioning, and mash on the keys. It would not matter what you sort, Hacker Typer will spit out what appears to be actual work. 🙂

In response to the enjoyable introduced by Clint Byrum (and Jim Hall’s response):

I like each of these! Enjoy this blog post about Hollywood hackers. One of my favorites.

~Greg Scott


What’s your favourite “for fun” Linux command? Please share yours within the feedback beneath.

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