Fun Things You Can Do in the Linux 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.