this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2023

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125

Cool fancy programs? (lemmy.world)

submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by EuroNutellaMan@lemmy.world to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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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 11 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 11 months ago

It's a UNIX system. I know this!

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[–] mvirts@lemmy.world 32 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Gotta go with sl

https://github.com/mtoyoda/sl

[–] vvv@programming.dev 6 points 11 months ago

https://github.com/rwos/gti

in the same vein

[–] sebsch@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

alias ls=sl

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[–] lattrommi@lemmy.ml 2 points 11 months ago

sl -alFc | lolcat -itas 819

rainbow snake train

[–] marcdw@lemmy.ml 19 points 11 months ago

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

[–] digger@lemmy.ca 18 points 11 months ago (1 children)

May I interest you in lolcat?

[–] CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml 19 points 11 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] vort3@lemmy.ml 11 points 11 months ago

Because dota is better than lol. Lol.

[–] BarrierWithAshes@kbin.social 18 points 11 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] EuroNutellaMan@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Holy shit this is me(n)tal

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[–] yetAnotherUser@lemmy.ca 17 points 11 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] ProgrammingSocks@pawb.social 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

ponysay :)

[–] pezhore@lemmy.ml 4 points 11 months ago

I'm partial to Pokemon say.

[–] MonkderZweite@feddit.ch 3 points 11 months ago

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

[–] De_Narm@lemmy.world 17 points 11 months ago

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

[–] misophist@lemmy.world 17 points 11 months ago (2 children)

xjack is one of my all-time favorite programs.

[–] vim_b@lemmy.ml 5 points 11 months ago

Unsettling. A+

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[–] mjpc13@lemmy.world 16 points 11 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 11 months ago

No more secrets sounds like it fits the bill

[–] CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml 14 points 11 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 11 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 11 months ago

Several of them are on the KDE store now too!

[–] TootSweet@lemmy.world 13 points 11 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 11 months ago

+1 for asciiquarium

[–] Deckweiss@lemmy.world 11 points 11 months ago

kdeconnect

[–] Quazatron@lemmy.world 11 points 11 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.

[–] DrBob@lemmy.ca 10 points 11 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] meteokr@community.adiquaints.moe 8 points 11 months ago (3 children)

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

[–] DrBob@lemmy.ca 2 points 11 months ago

I do believe it is!

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[–] turbowafflz@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

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

[–] mvirts@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

All of xscreensaver

Cool retro terminal

[–] Vincent@kbin.social 8 points 11 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 11 months ago

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

[–] LainOfTheWired@lemy.lol 7 points 11 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.