128
Cool fancy programs? (lemmy.world)
submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by EuroNutellaMan@lemmy.world to c/linux@lemmy.ml
68 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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
[-] piranhaphish@lemmy.world 39 points 10 months ago

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?

[-] tonyn@lemmy.ml 37 points 10 months ago

It's a UNIX system. I know this!

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] mvirts@lemmy.world 33 points 10 months ago

Gotta go with sl

https://github.com/mtoyoda/sl

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] marcdw@lemmy.ml 19 points 10 months ago

cool-retro-term: A good looking terminal emulator which mimics the old cathode display...

[-] digger@lemmy.ca 18 points 10 months ago

May I interest you in lolcat?

[-] CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml 19 points 10 months ago

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

[-] vort3@lemmy.ml 11 points 10 months ago

Because dota is better than lol. Lol.

[-] BarrierWithAshes@kbin.social 18 points 10 months ago

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

[-] EuroNutellaMan@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago

Holy shit this is me(n)tal

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] De_Narm@lemmy.world 17 points 10 months ago

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

[-] yetAnotherUser@lemmy.ca 17 points 10 months ago

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

[-] MonkderZweite@feddit.ch 3 points 10 months ago

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

[-] misophist@lemmy.world 17 points 10 months ago

xjack is one of my all-time favorite programs.

[-] vim_b@lemmy.ml 5 points 10 months ago

Unsettling. A+

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] mjpc13@lemmy.world 16 points 10 months ago

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)
[-] Molten_Moron@lemmings.world 15 points 10 months ago

No more secrets sounds like it fits the bill

[-] CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml 15 points 10 months ago

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

[-] ruplicant@sh.itjust.works 4 points 10 months ago

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

[-] CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml 6 points 10 months ago

Several of them are on the KDE store now too!

[-] TootSweet@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago
  • asciiquarium
  • xcowsay (someone else mentioned cowsay, but this one's a graphical reimagining of the same idea.)
  • xeyes
[-] CaptDust@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 months ago

+1 for asciiquarium

[-] Deckweiss@lemmy.world 11 points 10 months ago

kdeconnect

[-] Quazatron@lemmy.world 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.

[-] mvirts@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

All of xscreensaver

Cool retro terminal

[-] DrBob@lemmy.ca 10 points 10 months ago

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

[-] meteokr@community.adiquaints.moe 8 points 10 months ago

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

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] turbowafflz@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

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

[-] recarsion@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 10 months ago

cowsay

[-] Vincent@kbin.social 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

[-] disheveledWallaby@lemmy.ml 7 points 10 months ago

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

[-] LainOfTheWired@lemy.lol 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.

[-] krash@lemmy.ml 7 points 10 months ago

https://github.com/dustinkirkland/hollywood

https://gitlab.com/jallbrit/cbonsai

Procrastinate away 😁

[-] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 6 points 10 months ago

dd

[-] christos@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

https://gitlab.com/christosangel/ascii-matrix

https://gitlab.com/christosangel/c-pipes

https://gitlab.com/christosangel/ascii-matrix/-/raw/main/gif/bender.gif

https://gitlab.com/christosangel/c-pipes/-/raw/main/images/1.gif

[-] ExLisper@linux.community 5 points 10 months ago

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.

load more comments (4 replies)
[-] hollyberries@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 10 months ago

No mention of xsnow? I'm getting old hehe

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] rotopenguin@infosec.pub 4 points 10 months ago

Live Captions.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] snowe@programming.dev 4 points 10 months ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18953697

[-] Psythik@lemmy.world 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.

[-] jodanlime@midwest.social 3 points 10 months ago

Check out eaglemode

[-] Zoidberg@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago

No love for xroach? Man, I'm old. Is it still around?

[-] wuphysics87@lemmy.ml 2 points 10 months ago

asciiquarium

load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2023
128 points (96.4% liked)

Linux

47984 readers
1992 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
AgreeableLandscape@lemmy.ml
nooter692@lemmy.ml
MarcellusDrum@lemmy.ml
cypherpunks@lemmy.ml
cyclohexane@lemmy.ml
d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz