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Cool fancy programs? (lemmy.world)
submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 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 6 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 6 months ago

It's a UNIX system. I know this!

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[-] mvirts@lemmy.world 32 points 6 months ago

Gotta go with sl

https://github.com/mtoyoda/sl

[-] lattrommi@lemmy.ml 2 points 6 months ago

sl -alFc | lolcat -itas 819

rainbow snake train

[-] marcdw@lemmy.ml 19 points 6 months ago

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

[-] digger@lemmy.ca 18 points 6 months ago

May I interest you in lolcat?

[-] CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml 19 points 6 months ago

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

[-] vort3@lemmy.ml 11 points 6 months ago

Because dota is better than lol. Lol.

[-] BarrierWithAshes@kbin.social 18 points 6 months ago

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

[-] EuroNutellaMan@lemmy.world 7 points 6 months ago

Holy shit this is me(n)tal

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[-] yetAnotherUser@lemmy.ca 17 points 6 months ago

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

[-] MonkderZweite@feddit.ch 3 points 6 months ago

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

[-] misophist@lemmy.world 17 points 6 months ago

xjack is one of my all-time favorite programs.

[-] vim_b@lemmy.ml 5 points 6 months ago

Unsettling. A+

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[-] De_Narm@lemmy.world 16 points 6 months ago

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

[-] mjpc13@lemmy.world 15 points 6 months ago

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 6 months ago

No more secrets sounds like it fits the bill

[-] CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml 14 points 6 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 6 months ago

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

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

Several of them are on the KDE store now too!

[-] TootSweet@lemmy.world 13 points 6 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 6 months ago

+1 for asciiquarium

[-] Deckweiss@lemmy.world 11 points 6 months ago

kdeconnect

[-] Quazatron@lemmy.world 11 points 6 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 6 months ago

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

[-] meteokr@community.adiquaints.moe 8 points 6 months ago

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

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[-] turbowafflz@lemmy.world 5 points 6 months ago

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

[-] mvirts@lemmy.world 10 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

All of xscreensaver

Cool retro terminal

[-] Vincent@kbin.social 8 points 6 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 6 months ago

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

[-] LainOfTheWired@lemy.lol 7 points 6 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 6 months ago

https://github.com/dustinkirkland/hollywood

https://gitlab.com/jallbrit/cbonsai

Procrastinate away 😁

[-] recarsion@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 6 months ago

cowsay

[-] christos@lemmy.world 6 points 6 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

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

dd

[-] hollyberries@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 6 months ago

No mention of xsnow? I'm getting old hehe

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[-] snowe@programming.dev 4 points 6 months ago

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

[-] ExLisper@linux.community 4 points 6 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.

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[-] rotopenguin@infosec.pub 4 points 6 months ago

Live Captions.

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[-] jodanlime@midwest.social 3 points 6 months ago

Check out eaglemode

[-] Psythik@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

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

[-] callyral@pawb.social 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 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

[-] Zoidberg@lemm.ee 2 points 6 months ago

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

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

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