this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2023
125 points (96.3% liked)

Linux

47796 readers
954 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
125
submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

Hello,

I'm looking for as many cool, even if pointless, programs as I can, be them terminal programs or gui ones. What do I mean by this? I'll use some examples:

  • The Cube (I believe it was called Compiz): the one we all know and love.
  • cmatrix
  • the hollywood one
  • That one whose name I forget but basically spawns a cat that chases your cursor, I saw it showcased on Pop!_OS' mastodon.
  • wobbly windows
  • Burn my window
  • tplay

if any of you know any other fancy program like this let me know please. I want to showcase them to non-linux people to show them what can be done here but not necessarily in other OSes (particularly Windows).

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 38 points 10 months ago (2 children)

fsv or tdfsb

These are 3D filesystem browser apps that let you navigate your filesystem as though files and folders were trees in a forest that you're walking/flying through.

They were practically useless aside from the wow factor. I believe one may have made it into a movie scene. Jurassic Park?

[–] [email protected] 37 points 10 months ago

It's a UNIX system. I know this!

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 32 points 10 months ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 10 months ago
[–] [email protected] 18 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Linuxwave - https://github.com/orhun/linuxwave - You can generate music from your OS.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Holy shit this is me(n)tal

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 18 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 10 months ago (1 children)

There's also dotacat written in Rust for people who find lolcat too slow.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago

Because dota is better than lol. Lol.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago (2 children)

xjack is one of my all-time favorite programs.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

Unsettling. A+

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago

eDEX-UI - its basically a terminal, but as shown in movies. Mostly inspired by TRON I believe.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago (2 children)

When talking about cool programs, you can't forget the classic cowsay

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

and fortune or fortune-mod. Combine it with cowsay for best effect.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 10 months ago (1 children)

You have telnet. You can watch the complete episode 4 of Star Wars in Ascii on your terminal (and other ASCII movies)

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago

No more secrets sounds like it fits the bill

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Fly-Pie is a good one! Also the same person makes modern versions of Burn My Windows, Desktop Cube and other such things.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

that guy Schneegans makes the most beautiful useless rice! i'm tempted to switch to gnome now..

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago
[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago (1 children)
  • asciiquarium
  • xcowsay (someone else mentioned cowsay, but this one's a graphical reimagining of the same idea.)
  • xeyes
[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

+1 for asciiquarium

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago
[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago
  • That one whose name I forget but basically spawns a cat that chases your cursor

You mean Neko. Used to have it installed a long time ago. I don't know if it still works in this day of compositors and Wayland.

I also remember having a bunch of penguins running around my screen like little lemmings. Xpenguins I think it was called.

You can also get Xcowsay to pop up occasionally on your desktop to offer silly advice, just pipe it from fortune and add it to crontab.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago (2 children)

The Linux program that had a cat chase your mouse was Neko.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Is oneko the modern-ish version? As this sounds adorable.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

Also AMOR (Amazing Misuse Of Resources) which has more characters and features

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

All of xscreensaver

Cool retro terminal

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

It's a website rather than an app, but if you open it fullscreen, it's just as much fun: https://hackertyper.com

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

Lolcat, yt-dlp, hyprland. Honesty though most of what I find cool these days wouldn't make any sense to a Windows user. Like DWM, ST, XBPS, lf, ly, neovim, etc.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

Cowsay, figlet, telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl, misfortune, cava, xscreensaver are a few that come to mind.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago
[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago
[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago
[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

No mention of xsnow? I'm getting old hehe

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

xscreensaver with IFS. Can't stop looking at it. I'm writing this on another computer because I don't want to disable screen saver on my primary one.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

What's the IFS part? I tried a quick web search but didn't find anything...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Thank you!

I have this already :) now I know their name!

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Not a Linux app but I'm willing to bet that you'd love https://windows93.net.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Check out eaglemode

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Wayfire - basically Wayland Compiz

Unimatrix - CMatrix-like program

cellular-automaton.nvim - neovim plugin, check out the video in the github page, i don't know how to explain it but it's cool

load more comments
view more: next ›