For about 4-5 years, I have been off the deep end of Gnu/Linux operating systems. During this time period, many things in my life have changed, new social groups, and friends. After the social rebirth and exodus from high school, a few friends stuck around. Granted, this group is smaller than usual but is more closely intertwined. And yes, I know that’s already off-topic for a Linux-based community. But when I like to tell a story, I like to paint a full picture. However, I will try to cut out the fluff, but I digress.

So, like many others on this community of Unix-like operating system enthusiasts, I began the plunge from Windows to Linux. First, I originally started with Manjaro because I learned about it from my very first Linux install on a Raspberry Pi model B+. I used that for a few months and eventually used the “AUR”. Much like Icarus, I flew too close to the sun, and my naivety of dependencies and the underlying parts of the OS reared its ugly head. To which, my system became irrecoverably broken, and after much mental berating, I switched to Kubuntu for a year, then back to Arch. Then, my home was Nixos and Gentoo on all my machines, using Gentoo has taught me a lot about Linux as a whole.

Now, to the meat and potatoes: myself and two other individuals have done various things to fill our free time. It originally started with heading over to Friend A’s house to play on his Xbox. Which became tiresome quickly, as many people know Xbox series S games are expensive, along with the “fast” NVMe-based storage stick for “internal only games”. Friend B saved up for a laptop and bought an MSI Cyborg 15, and I cobbled together a LAN rig from Facebook Marketplace. Lovingly named the Ybox, as a joke of not being an Xbox and running Baztite Linux with Steam Big Picture, we had such a great time playing couch co-op games on the Ybox featuring Ultimate Chicken Horse, Unrailed, and speedrunners. But eventually, everybody in the group grew tired of couch co-op as although quite delightful became limiting in screen real estate and three-player genres. So, we started doing LAN parties like many gamers before have done in the days of Pepsi Free and parachute pants. We played many games locally and online together, and it has been great with fairly minor issues involving Steam and spotty internet.

So over this time period, I have been taking online computer classes specifically a Google IT class which is grossly outdated and feels very cobbled together as it was originally released in 2015. But it has still been useful in basic computer concepts like DNS, TCP/IP, and various Windows and Linux utilities. So, we all have played Minecraft since early days and have all played vanilla. So I said, “Screw it,” and looked at some guides. Installed it on a spare laptop and recently switched it to run as a Docker container to run on my NAS and looked for help on port forwarding on Lemmy, to which the very kind people of C/Selfhosted pointed out Tailscale and Wireguard. Which has been rock-solid and much better solution got my friends all wired up to my tailnet, and it has been smooth since!

So we are now at the present where the previous night I was on call with Friend A, and he was honestly confused when there was a GUI installer and buttons. He was used to watching me use SwayWM and Kitty on the Ybox. I guess he thought Linux is for hackers and command-line only. The install went without a hitch; he booted into KDE and felt instantly at home! I showed him how to use the KDE store, in his words, “it’s like the Microsoft Store?” and the touchscreen worked out of the box, and man it was PURE BLISS.

Honestly, shoutout to this great community and the very talented people behind Linux and its many, many distributions.

[Browsers]

Browsh

old school looking terminal web browser with image support that runs on a modified version of Firefox https://www.brow.sh/

Lynx

Terminal web browser (can configure to use MPV or YouTube-dl for videos) https://lynx.browser.org/

Links

Terminal based web browser a lot like lynx http://links.twibright.com/

suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/Buck@lemmy.world

Links2

Links 2 the electric boogaloo, it is written in C with ncurses https://github.com/spartrekus/links2

suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/Siegfried@lemmy.world

[System Monitoring]

uptimed

System uptime record daemon that keeps track of your highest uptimes https://github.com/rpodgorny/uptimed/

suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/Steamymoomilk

TTYload

color-coded graph of load averages over time http://zhar.net/projects/shell/terminal-colors

suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/Steamymoomilk

Bottom

shows CPU cores, CPU usage, Memory usage, Disks, Disk usage, Processes, Network, Temperature. https://github.com/ClementTsang/bottom

gdu

Pretty fast disk usage analyzer written in Go.

Gdu is intended primarily for SSD disks where it can fully utilize parallel processing. However HDDs work as well, but the performance gain is not so huge.

https://github.com/dundee/gdu

suggested by @stepanzak@iusearchlinux.fyi

neofetch

display your *NIX and system info with one command! https://github.com/dylanaraps/neofetch

nvtop

Shows Program usage, GPU usage, GPU memory, Clock speeds, Power, Temperature, https://github.com/Syllo/nvtop

Htop

generic terminal system monitor and is very basic Shows CPU core util, Memory, Swap, Uptime, Load avrage, Tasks https://htop.dev/

duf

Shows disks space, Mounted point, File system type, Size https://github.com/muesli/duf

Pydf

Check disk space usage with colored output https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/pydf-check-disk-space-usage-with-colored-output/

suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/easeKItMAn@lemmy.world

Glacees

A lot like Htop or top but looks different and is cross platform. https://github.com/nicolargo/glances

Btop

Btop is like Htop but with customizability cranked to 11, it shows by default, Memory load, Available Memory, Cached Memory, Free Memory, Network interface, Network Download, Network Upload, IP address, Running Programs, How much memory the Programs are using as well as CPU, CPU cores, CPU util, CPU Temperature, and the time. https://github.com/aristocratos/btop

Suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/floofloof@lemmy.ca

[Text Editors and file location]

yq

a lightweight and portable command-line YAML, JSON and XML processor. https://github.com/mikefarah/yq suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/dotslashme@infosec.pub

fd

Superfast file finder Via cmd line. https://github.com/sharkdp/fd

Autojump

autojump is a faster way to navigate your filesystem. It works by maintaining a database of the directories you use the most from the command line. https://github.com/wting/autojump

suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/chasingtheflow@lemmy.world

fzf

Fuzzy command line finder https://github.com/junegunn/fzf

mcfly

quickly look through your shell history, to find that one command you’re too lazy to type again (I do it as well LMAO) https://github.com/cantino/mcfly

Atuin

Atuin replaces your existing shell history with a SQLite database, and records additional context for your commands. Additionally, it provides optional and fully encrypted synchronisation of your history between machines, via an Atuin server. (its like mcfly but better objectively)

https://github.com/atuinsh/atuin suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/stepanzak@iusearchlinux.fyi

TLDR

a community driven easy man page finder. (life saver) https://github.com/tldr-pages/tldr

Nano

The default text editor, not stupid complicated not. not very configurable but does the job https://www.nano-editor.org/

Micro

it’s like Nano but is static and has no dependency as well as plugin support. https://micro-editor.github.io/

Suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/jelloeater85@lemmy.world

Helix

It’s a post-modern text editor that is similar to VIM or Neovim the main difference is it runs on Rust meaning No JavaScript, Electron or Vim Script and is highly customizable!

https://helix-editor.com/ Suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/ultra@feddit.ro

Emacs

Behold the Church of Emacs, its like nano and vim had a child. its configurable and somewhat simple https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/

Kakoune

A modal terminal text editor based on Vi. Kakoune is based on selection before action and is committed to the unix Philosophy https://github.com/mawww/kakoune

suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/RAM@discuss.tchncs.de

Bim

Bim aims to be lightweight and featureful with no external* dependencies, providing a modern editing experience in a lightweight, extensible package and is based on VIM https://github.com/klange/bim

suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/neurospice@lemmy.dbzer0.com

Vim

The master-race of text editors that has a learning curve but is very configurable as well as plugins, to the point so people argue why need anything other than VIM https://www.vim.org/

Neovim

it’s like vim and Oh my ZSH had a child, its got a lot of configurability and is ment to be more user-friendly https://neovim.io/

[Command utilities]

Tmux

its a CLI window, manager with a lot of bits and bobs. its actually a terminal multiplexer which is a fancy word i don’t understand :D Also the keybindings are hard to remember and would highly recommend https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tmux-pain-control suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/ptrckstr@lemmy.world

https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki

tmate

its a fork of tmux that lets your share your terminal over LAN or the internet https://tmate.io/ Suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/Steamymoomilk

Terminal colors

It automatically detects 8, 16, 88, 256 color capabilities (via ncurses)
and displays the appropriate color charts.

http://zhar.net/projects/shell/terminal-colors suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/Steamymoomilk

byobu

its alot like tmux with added features https://www.byobu.org/ suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/Geert@lemmy.world

zellij

Alot like Tmux and has plugin support https://github.com/zellij-org/zellij suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/ptrckstr@lemmy.world

jq

jq is a lightweight and flexible command-line JSON processor akin to sed,awk,grep, and friends for JSON data. It’s written in portable C and has zero runtime dependencies, allowing you to easily slice, filter, map, and transform structured data. https://github.com/jqlang/jq suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/ptrckstr@lemmy.world

zoxide

faster/easier cd lets you quickly jump to places in your filesystem. E.g. z pic will put you in ~/Pictures. https://github.com/ajeetdsouza/zoxide

suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/flamingos@feddit.uk

ncdu

shows how much disk space is used by each directory, can also explore subdirectories and delete files suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/Hexagon@feddit.it

neomutt

email via cli! https://neomutt.org/

suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/gaael@lemmy.world

tig

interactive terminal UI for git with lots of functionality https://github.com/jonas/tig

suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/Hexagon@feddit.it

pass

the standard Unix password manager https://www.passwordstore.org/ suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/ptrckstr@lemmy.world

Starship

The minimal, blazing-fast, and infinitely customizable prompt for any shell! (its lets you customize your shell) https://github.com/starship/starship suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/ptrckstr@lemmy.world

Lazygit

Terminal UI for git https://github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit Suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/ptrckstr@lemmy.world

K9S

Kubernetes CLI To Manage Your Clusters In Style! https://k9scli.io/ suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/dotslashme@infosec.pub

Lazydocker

Terminal ui for docker, Shows CPU and memory, and what’s running and where its pulled from. https://github.com/jesseduffield/lazydocker

Suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/ptrckstr@lemmy.world

RM-improved/RIP

Use RM but everything goes to /tmp folder https://github.com/nivekuil/rip

suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/ptrckstr@lemmy.world

Trashy

fast and light weight RM that moves items to trash folder and has colorized outputs like FD. https://github.com/oberblastmeister/trashy

suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/stepanzak@iusearchlinux.fyi

tealdear

tldr but in rust (tldr lets your easily find manpages/examples and usage for terminal command) https://github.com/dbrgn/tealdeer

suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/ptrckstr@lemmy.world

Navi

navi allows you to browse through cheatsheets (that you may write yourself or download from maintainers) and execute commands. Suggested values for arguments are dynamically displayed in a list. https://github.com/denisidoro/navi

suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/stepanzak@iusearchlinux.fyi

Cheat

this program allows you to create and view interactive cheatsheets on the command-line. https://github.com/cheat/cheat suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/2kool4idkwhat@lemdro.id

gomi

its RM except has a trash can so you don’t permitly delete something by accident
https://github.com/babarot/gomi suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/2kool4idkwhat@lemdro.id

broot

a different than ranger/lf approach to navigating folders https://github.com/Canop/broot suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/2kool4idkwhat@lemdro.id

mdr

a markdown viewer https://github.com/michaelmure/mdr suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/2kool4idkwhat@lemdro.id

eza

modern ls, with cool features like file icons https://github.com/eza-community/eza suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/2kool4idkwhat@lemdro.id

Rtorrent

a terminal based torrent client https://rakshasa.github.io/rtorrent/

suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/gunpachi@lemmings.world

ouch

It’s a CLI tool for compressing and decompressing for various formats. such as .tar .zip 7z .gz .xz .lzma .bz .bz2 .lz4 .sz .zst .rar https://github.com/ouch-org/ouch

suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/crunchpaste@lemmy.dbzer0.com

bat

modern cat, with features like syntax highlighting, line numbers, etc https://github.com/sharkdp/bat suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/2kool4idkwhat@lemdro.id

thefuck

hey you!, yeah you I DIDNT TYPE THAT COMMAND WRONG! with thefuck it fixes when you type a prevoius command wrong https://github.com/nvbn/thefuck

suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/tourist@lemmy.world

[Shells]

Nushell

it is a new type of shell that has some really cool features such as more detailed error messages and displays licenses via HTTP get, git or curl As well as a more clean UI for ls. https://www.nushell.sh/ suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/callyral@pawb.social

Bash

its the default and lots of programs use it, https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/

ble.sh

Bash Line Editor, bash Shell with a few tweaks https://github.com/akinomyoga/ble.sh suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/iusearchbtw@lemmy.sdf.org

Mosh

Remote terminal application that allows roaming, supports intermittent connectivity, and provides intelligent local echo and line editing of user keystrokes. (sadly there is no pit) https://mosh.org/

suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/Bitflip@lemmy.ml

DASH

a POSIX-compliant /bin/sh that is fast and simple http://gondor.apana.org.au/~herbert/dash/

suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/callyral@pawb.social

Fish

its like bash but has auto correct for typing https://fishshell.com/

Zsh

its like vim for a shell, it has lots of bells and whistles and is very customizable. https://github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/wiki/Installing-ZSH

[File Browsers]

Midnight Commander

Midnight commander is a file Browser that has 2 panes where you can do basic file manager stuff such as Copy, Pasting, moving files, and Deleting all Via Terminal!

https://midnight-commander.org/

Suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/logir@feddit.it

Fm.awk

File manager written in awk https://github.com/huijunchen9260/fm.awk/ Suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/Steamymoomilk

lmf

st File Manager is a powerful file manager for the UNIX console. It has a curses interface and it’s written in Python v3.4+. https://inigo.katxi.org/devel/lfm/

Rover

Rover is a small file browser that aims to be simple, fast and portable. https://lecram.github.io/p/rover/ suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/Steamymoomilk

LF

lf (as in “list files”) is a terminal file manager written in Go with a heavy inspiration from ranger file manager. https://github.com/gokcehan/lf

suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/callyral@pawb.social

Ranger

Alot like Midnight Commander but running on VIM, and just like VIM it is highly customizable
https://github.com/ranger/ranger

----added note ranger should be installed via git most distros have 4+ older versions and lots of bugs

Suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/logir@feddit.it

nnn

nnn (n³) is a full-featured terminal file manager. It’s tiny, nearly 0-config and incredibly fast. https://github.com/jarun/nnn suggest by https://sh.itjust.works/u/gunpachi@lemmings.world

[Fun/games]

lolcat

make your terminal rainbow https://github.com/busyloop/lolcat

suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/GentooIsBased@lemmy.ml

Cowsay

make a cow say something in Terminal! https://github.com/piuccio/cowsay

Suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/bizdelnick@lemmy.ml

Bastet

Tetris clone via terminal https://github.com/fph/bastet/ suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/pastaPersona@lemmy.world

Cmatrix

make your terminal look like your mr.hacker man https://github.com/abishekvashok/cmatrix suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/tourist@lemmy.world

spotify-tui

Spotify CLI frontend (Spotify via terminal) https://github.com/Rigellute/spotify-tui

suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/tourist@lemmy.world

cacademo

plays a bunch of neat ASCII animations https://linux.die.net/man/1/cacademo

suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/tourist@lemmy.world

figlet

ASCII text art. http://www.figlet.org/

toilet

turn text into ASCII art. http://caca.zoy.org/wiki/toilet

Yewtube

a cli youtube piped client, stream, download and play audio from YouTube piped. https://github.com/mps-youtube/yewtube

suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/Steamymoomilk

Cmus

cmus is a small, fast and powerful console music player for Unix-like operating systems. https://cmus.github.io/

suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/Siegfried@lemmy.world

cbonsai

Little ASCII art bonsai tree that can be animated with the -l flag https://gitlab.com/jallbrit/cbonsai suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/tourist@lemmy.world

tty-clock

a digital clock via your terminal! https://github.com/xorg62/tty-clock

I would love to add more useful and cool programs to this list! Feel free to leave suggestions to add! I really want to make this post a really good place to find cool new programs

I would love to add more useful and cool programs to this list! Feel free to leave suggestions to add! I really want to make this post a really good place to find cool new programs

[messagers]

Irssi Irssi is completely themeable IRC client, aswell as easy to write protocol modules in C. https://irssi.org/ suggested by https://sh.itjust.works/u/dotslashme@infosec.pub

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