While learning of all the useful commands on the Linux command line, it can be difficult to remember how much fun the command line can really be.
There are several commands whose sole purpose is to entertain, and these are the topic of the day.
The first two commands are not so much “fun” as they are useful and interesting… and there I go already.
There are some fun ones coming up — I promise!
Calendar
The cal command prints a calendar of the current month, with the current day highlighted.
October 2016
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30 31
Other options are, of course, available. See the man page for details.
Date & Time
The date command prints out the current date and time, such as: Tue Oct 11 20:14:44 VET 2016
Asciiquarium
To begin, run dnf install asciiquarium.
Fast fish, slow fish, green fish, blue fish, shark! They, and many more, will be all over your terminal screen when you run this fun little ascii aquarium program. Try it out, sit back, and enjoy!
Banner
To begin, run dnf install banner.
Banner will print a short string on your terminal screen in very large letters. Try it out, but feel free to substitute your own name, or change the string entirely: banner WELCOME GWEN
Espeak
To begin, run dnf install espeak.
Espeak is a multi-lingual software speech synthesizer, meaning that anything you type in while it is running will be spoken out loud by the synthesized voice.
Run espeak, then type in as much text as you want to hear. Hit Enter to hear your text spoken aloud.
Cowsay
To begin, run dnf install cowsay.
Cowsay will print an ascii cow, with a user-specified string in a speech-bubble, as if the cow is speaking.
Example: cowsay This is kinda cool, right?
< This is kinda cool, right? >
----------------------------
\ ^__^
\ (oo)\_______
(__)\ )\/\
||----w |
|| ||
Factor
Ok, so technically this one’s math… but it does your math for you, so that’s fun, right?
Factor will factor a specified number for you, so run the command with an argument — the number in question.
Example: factor 99
Result: 99: 3 3 11
Figlet
To begin, run dnf install figlet.
Figlet will display large characters made up of ordinary screen characters, for a string provided.
Run figlet and then type in a string and hit Enter to convert it.
Example:
this is a test _ _ _ _ _ _ | |_| |__ (_)___ (_)___ __ _ | |_ ___ ___| |_ | __| '_ \| / __| | / __| / _` | | __/ _ \/ __| __| | |_| | | | \__ \ | \__ \ | (_| | | || __/\__ \ |_ \__|_| |_|_|___/ |_|___/ \__,_| \__\___||___/\__|
Oneko
To begin, run dnf install oneko.
The oneko program creates a cute cat that runs around after your cursor.
I really like this one, despite the fact that it can stop being fun and cute, and can become annoying after awhile!
Rev
Rev will reverse lines character wise, so any string you type in will be backward.
I can see this being a fun way to entertain people (like myself, except it’s no fun with one person because I already know what it says!)
Example: ezirp tnatsixe-non eht niw uoy siht daer nac uoy fi
Sl
To begin, run dnf install sl.
Sl is intended to cure the bad habit of mistyping “ls” as “sl”, but if you ask me, it may cause the opposite response with me.
I did not have a habit of typing “sl” instead of “ls”, but if I get a cute little ascii choo-choo train chugging across my screen every time I do… I’m probably gonna end up mistyping it on purpose!
Xeyes
If you want a pair of wide-open eyes stuck on your screen, watching your cursor’s every move, xeyes will do it for you.
To stick xeyes to the top of all windows, just so you can’t shake them off, run the command to start the program, then right-click on xeyes on the task manager, and select More Actions > Keep Above Others
Summary
Having fun yet? I hope that you’ve been trying out each of these as you read along, and have found at least a few of them to be entertaining.
As for me, there are Xeyes and a cat following my cursor around on the screen right now — it’s more than a little disconcerting, but quite diverting!