Fun with Linux CLI

I have been using Linux or the past 20 years and I’m always in love with this Operating System. My daily driver for official use is a Windows Laptop which has WSL in it but my personal laptops a 15 year old Lenovo and the new HP runs MX Linux & Arch respectively. I believe most computer geeks are so enthusiastic about Linux distros and open-source software. Everyone has their own reasons for loving Linux, my reasons are as follows:

  • Linux Is Free – distributions are available for download free of charge.
  • Linux Is Open – Linux kernel or the heart of the OS & other operating system components, and many user programs are free and open-source, meaning that anyone can look at the source code and make changes. As Richard Stallman says, this software is “free as in speech.”
  • Linux Command Line – command line offers the most control over the computer. Many Linux programs only use the command line, including developer tools. This may repel normal users, but technical users appreciate it.
  • Community Support – choice of support, ranging from IRC, web forums, Wikis, Discord servers, even in-person user groups. For any issues someone has often posted a solution somewhere on the web. Due to the community spirit Linux seems to inspire its users on multiple forums
  • Programming Tools in abundance it comes with many of the tools they need to do their jobs. Editors, compilers, interpreters, debuggers, you name it, it’s often included in the default system. If not, it’s only a package manager command away.
  • Rapid Prototyping due to its affinity to scripting languages
  • Linux Is Customizable to the core including, desktop environments, window managers, apps etc and one can even run Linux without a GUI
  • Linux Runs Everywhere, from x86 to ARM to your N/W devices and your mobile.
  • Linux strengths is its ability to interoperate with other file format

Today we’re going to discuss about the fun side of Linux command line. If you are bored you should definitely try these fun commands.

Neofetch: A system utility written in bash to get customizable system info.

Installing neofetch:

sudo apt install neofetch - Debian/Ubuntu & its derivatives
sudo dnf install neofetch - Fedora/RHEL and its derivatives
sudo pacman -S neofetch - Arch/Manjaro and its derivatives

FIGlet: This command utility is used to create beautiful ASCII art logo. I some remote servers you might have already seen this. It doesn’t have a character limit. Create your own ASCII art of unlimited lengths with this CLI tool.

Installing figlet

sudo apt install figlet - Debian/Ubuntu & its derivatives
sudo dnf install figlet - Fedora/RHEL and its derivatives
sudo pacman -S figlet - Arch/Manjaro and its derivatives

Cowsay: It is an ASCII art command line tool that displays the input with an ASCII cow art

Installing cowsay

sudo apt install cowsay - Debian/Ubuntu & its derivatives
sudo dnf install cowsay - Fedora/RHEL and its derivatives
sudo pacman -S cowsay - Arch/Manjaro and its derivatives

sl: This linux command line utility brings the good old steam locomotive to our desktop. funny right, do try it out.

Installing sl

sudo apt install sl - Debian/Ubuntu & its derivatives
sudo dnf install sl - Fedora/RHEL and its derivatives
sudo pacman -S sl - Arch/Manjaro and its derivatives

xeyes: This is kind of a stress buster which will bring a pair of eyes to your desktop. The eye balls move depending on your mouse pointers position.

Installing xeyes

sudo apt install x11-apps - Debian/Ubuntu & its derivatives
sudo dnf install xeyes - Fedora/RHEL and its derivatives
sudo pacman -S xorg-xeyes - Arch/Manjaro and its derivatives

aafire: This utility will make your terminal light up. aafire command starts an ASCII fire inside your terminal.

Installing aafire

sudo apt install libaa-bin - Debian/Ubuntu & its derivatives
sudo dnf install aalib - Fedora/RHEL and its derivatives
sudo pacman -S aalib - Arch/Manjaro and its derivatives

rig: This command line tool help you to rig some user info. It wil quickly generate fake identity which is readable by apps and users.

Installing rig

sudo apt install rig - Debian/Ubuntu & its derivatives
sudo dnf install rig - Fedora/RHEL and its derivatives
sudo pacman -S rig - Arch/Manjaro and its derivatives

Finally, want to see movies or play music/mp3 files on the Linux command line, give it a try not many CLI will allow you to do this.

mpg123: for playing mp3 files/playlists
cmus: ncurses based utility for playing mp3 files/playlists
mpv: ncurses based utility for playing videos

sudo apt install cmus/mpg123 - Debian/Ubuntu & its derivatives
sudo dnf install cmus/mpg123 - Fedora/RHEL and its derivatives
sudo pacman -S cmus/mpg123 - Arch/Manjaro and its derivatives

sudo apt install mpv - Debian/Ubuntu & its derivatives
sudo dnf install mpv - Fedora/RHEL and its derivatives
sudo pacman -S mpv - Arch/Manjaro and its derivatives
July 11, 2022 FOSS Tools, Linux No Comments on Fun with Linux CLI