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Cool and Fun Linux Terminal Commands

If you are bored and want to spice up while working on Linux terminal, you can try the following commands and get amused.

1. aafire – Fire in  your terminal

Installation:
Ubuntu/Debian Linux:

sudo apt install libaa-bin

Run:

aafire

Sample Output:

 

2. toilet– display large colourful characters
Note: Fonts are .flf or .tlf files stored in the /usr/share/figlet folder

Installation:
Ubuntu/Debian Linux:

sudo apt install toilet

Run:

toilet <message>

Sample Output:

3. banner– print large banner

Installation:
Ubuntu/Debian Linux:

sudo apt install sysvbanner

Run:

banner <message>

Sample Output:

4. figlet – display large characters made up of ordinary screen characters

Installation:
Ubuntu/Debian Linux:

sudo apt install figlet

Run:

figlet <message>

Sample Output:

5. cowsay/cowthink– configurable speaking/thinking cow

Installation:
Ubuntu/Debian Linux:

sudo apt install cowsay

Run:

cowsay <message>
cowthink <message>

Sample Output:

You have bunch of animals to choose from:

cowsay -l

tux@freelinux:~$ cowsay -l
Cow files in /usr/share/cowsay/cows:
apt beavis.zen bong bud-frogs bunny calvin cheese cock cower daemon default
dragon dragon-and-cow duck elephant elephant-in-snake eyes flaming-sheep
ghostbusters gnu head-in hellokitty kiss kitty koala kosh luke-koala
mech-and-cow meow milk moofasa moose mutilated pony pony-smaller ren sheep skeleton snowman sodomized-sheep stegosaurus stimpy suse three-eyes turkey turtle tux unipony unipony-smaller vader vader-koala www

6. sl (steam locomotive)– display animations aimed to correct users who accidentally enter sl instead of ls

Installation:
Ubuntu/Debian Linux:

sudo apt install sl

Run:

sl

Sample Output:

7. cmatrix– simulates the display from “The Matrix”

Installation:
Ubuntu/Debian Linux:

sudo apt install cmatrix

Run:

cmatrix

Sample Output:

8. fortune– print a random, hopefully interesting, adage

Installation:
Ubuntu/Debian Linux:

sudo apt install fortune

Run:

fortune

Sample Output:

Note: you can mix it with cowsay to make it cooler.

9. asciiquarium– simulation of an aquarium using ASCII art

Installation:
Ubuntu/Debian Linux:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ytvwld/asciiquarium
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install asciiquarium

Run:

/usr/games/asciiquarium

Sample Output:

10. bb – an ASCII-art demo

Installation:
Ubuntu/Debian Linux:

sudo apt install bb

Run:

bb

Sample Output:

11. oneko– creates a cute cat chasing around your mouse cursor
Note: Need to be run in terminal on GUI (cannot run via ssh, will receive an error like Can’t open display)

Installation:
Ubuntu/Debian Linux:

sudo apt install oneko

Run:

oneko

Sample Output:

12. rev– reverse lines characterwise

Installation:
Ubuntu/Debian Linux:

sudo apt install rev

Run:

rev

Sample Output:

13. pv – monitor the progress of data through a pipe. It will have like cool real-time typing effect

Installation:
Ubuntu/Debian Linux:

sudo apt install pv

Run:

pv

Sample Output:

13. rig -Random Identity Generator

Installation:
Ubuntu/Debian Linux:

sudo apt install rig

Run:

rig

Sample Output:

14. xcowsay -Display a cute cow and speech bubble
Note: Need to be run in terminal on GUI (cannot run via ssh, will receive an error like Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display: )

Installation:
Ubuntu/Debian Linux:

sudo apt install xcowsay

Run:

xcowsay <message>

Sample Output:

15. funny-manpages -Display a cute cow and speech bubble
Note: Need to be run in terminal on GUI (cannot run via ssh, will receive an error like Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display: )

Installation:
Ubuntu/Debian Linux:

sudo apt install funny-manpages

Run:

man  <command>

Some lists to try: (baby,celibacy,condom,date,echo,flame,flog,gong,grope,party,rm,rtfm,tm,uubp,xkill,xlart,sex)

Sample Output:

16. yes -output a string repeatedly until killed

Installation:
Ubuntu/Debian Linux:

sudo apt install yes

Run:

yes <message>

Sample Output:

17. aview– A high quality ASCII art image viewer

Installation:
Ubuntu/Debian Linux:

sudo apt install aview

Run:

asciiview <picture_file_saved_in_directory>

Sample Output:

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