Fun Things You Can Do in the Linux Terminal
Despite the seriousness of an operating system, the Linux community are certainly no strangers to a bit of fun. The developers over the years have created and inserted all manner of fun and odd elements into the Terminal.
Steam Locomotive
The first command we’re going to use is sl, it’s not installed by default so enter:
sudo apt-get install sl
The command can be run with sl and when executed will display a Steam Locomotive travelling across the screen (hence ‘sl’). Entering LS, note the upper case, also works.
Your Fortune
If you’ve ever fancied having the computer read a random fortune out to you, then you’re in luck. Most distros require you to install the fortune app, however Linux Mint differs somewhat by having it already pre-loaded. All you need to do is enter, in the terminal, the command:
fortune
Reversed Text
The rev command is certainly interesting, and at first what seems a quite useless addition to the OS. However, it can be used to create some seemingly unbreakable passwords. Enter:
rev
Now type some text, when you press Enter everything you typed in will be reversed. Press Ctrl+C to exit.
Star Wars
Fans of Star Wars even get a fix when it comes to the Terminal. By linking to a remote server via the telnet command, you can watch Episode IV: A New Hope being played out, albeit in ASCII. To view this spectacle, enter:
telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl
Number Factors
If you’re stuck trying to work out all the possible factors for any particular number, simply enter factor followed by the number. For example, factor 7 doesn’t offer much output, whereas factor 60 displays more.
What Does the Cow Say
There’s a fine line between the rather cool and really-quite-weird. Having an ASCII cow repeat text to you could potentially fall in the latter. Enter cowsay followed by any text you want, such as:
cowsay Linux Mint is ace!
In fact, you can even output the ls command through the cow, by entering:
ls | cowsay
To further the cow element, there’s even a graphical, i.e. non-Terminal, cow available. Install it with:
sudo apt-get install xcowsay
Then when it’s installed enter something similar to cowsay, such as:
xcowsay BDM Publications
If you really want to expand the whole cow thing, for whatever reason, then pipe the fortune command through it, with:
fortune | cowsay
and for the graphical cow equivalent:
fortune | xcowsay
Plus, there’s always cowthink. Try: cowthink …This book is awesome.
Toilet…
The command toilet doesn’t inspire much confidence, we’ll admit. However, it’s not as bad asit first sounds. Start by installing it with:
sudo apt-get install toilet
Then when installed, type something along the lines of:
toilet David
Or perhaps list the contents of the current folder through it, with:
ls | toilet
Expanding the toilet command, you can actually generate some decent looking graphics throughit. For example, try this:
toilet -f mono12 -F metal David
You can enter toilet –help, for a list of the command line arguments to expand further.
