this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2023
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submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by EuroNutellaMan@lemmy.world to c/linux@lemmy.ml
 

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).

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[–] piranhaphish@lemmy.world 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?

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

It's a UNIX system. I know this!

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[–] mvirts@lemmy.world 32 points 10 months ago (3 children)
[–] sebsch@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)
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[–] lattrommi@lemmy.ml 2 points 10 months ago

sl -alFc | lolcat -itas 819

rainbow snake train

[–] marcdw@lemmy.ml 19 points 10 months ago
[–] BarrierWithAshes@kbin.social 18 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] EuroNutellaMan@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Holy shit this is me(n)tal

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[–] digger@lemmy.ca 18 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml 19 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] 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 (2 children)

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 (2 children)

xjack is one of my all-time favorite programs.

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

Unsettling. A+

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[–] mjpc13@lemmy.world 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)

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

No more secrets sounds like it fits the bill

[–] CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml 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.

[–] ruplicant@sh.itjust.works 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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
[–] TootSweet@lemmy.world 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
[–] CaptDust@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 months ago

+1 for asciiquarium

[–] 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.

[–] Deckweiss@lemmy.world 11 points 10 months ago
[–] 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 (2 children)

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

[–] meteokr@community.adiquaints.moe 8 points 10 months ago (3 children)

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

[–] DrBob@lemmy.ca 2 points 10 months ago

I do believe it is!

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[–] turbowafflz@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

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

[–] 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

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

[–] recarsion@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 10 months ago
[–] disheveledWallaby@lemmy.ml 7 points 10 months ago

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

[–] christos@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago
[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 6 points 10 months ago
[–] hollyberries@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

No mention of xsnow? I'm getting old hehe

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[–] ExLisper@linux.community 4 points 10 months ago (4 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.

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[–] rotopenguin@infosec.pub 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)
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[–] snowe@programming.dev 4 points 10 months ago
[–] jodanlime@midwest.social 3 points 10 months ago

Check out eaglemode

[–] 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.

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