Most individuals use Linux to be taught, tinker, or construct one thing helpful. I’ve used it to do issues that vary from mildly amusing to downright cursed. These aren’t greatest practices. They’re not productive. They most likely received’t land you a job. However they are going to remind you why Linux is such a wild and great system.

8

Booted Straight Into /bin/bash—No Init, No GUI, Simply Vibes

I wished to see what would occur if I advised Linux to skip, nicely, every little thing. No login supervisor. No systemd. No companies. Simply drop me straight right into a root shell prefer it’s 1991. To do that, I rebooted Ubuntu, hit the E key on the GRUB menu, and located the road beginning with “linux.” I eliminated “quiet splash $vt_handoff”, so I may really see the output, then added init=/bin/bash to the tip of the road and pressed Ctrl+X as well.

It labored. After a quick pause and some faucets of the Enter key, I landed within the terminal:

root@(none):/# 

That’s it. No hostname. No shell immediate artwork. Only a blinking cursor and an nearly meditative vacancy. The basis filesystem was read-only by default, so I needed to run:

mount -o remount,rw /

From there, it was all guide—no shutdown choices, no systemctl—simply uncooked shell entry.

To reboot, I needed to drive it with

reboot -f

After that onerous reboot, the system began usually as a result of the GRUB edit wasn’t everlasting. Should you didn’t save the init=/bin/bash change (and also you should not), your Ubuntu desktop will boot similar to earlier than. It’s completely ineffective for regular computing, however as a studying second, it’s wild. You see simply how a lot of your system is optionally available. And yeah, it kinda felt like standing in an deserted server room with a flashlight and no doorways.

All of the bizarre experiments on this article might be executed on most Linux distros—whether or not you are utilizing Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, or one thing extra obscure. Some instruments could require totally different package deal managers (like apt, dnf, or pacman), however the enjoyable is distro-agnostic.

7

Ran the sure Command Till My Terminal Cried

There’s slightly command called yes that repeats a string again and again endlessly. Why? No person actually is aware of, however I ran it anyway.

sure "I'm root"

Immediately, the terminal began flooding with these phrases. It ate CPU. It chewed by means of scrollback. It crammed the display prefer it had one thing to show. Wish to cease it? You’ll must hit Ctrl+C. And perhaps replicate in your decisions.

Attempt piping it into the top command, if you need a extra restrained expertise:

sure "All hail Tux" | head -n 10

6

Put in Hannah Montana Linux to Really feel One thing

I spun up a digital machine, downloaded Hannah Montana Linux (sure, that’s an actual distro), and booted right into a KDE desktop drenched in purple, glitter, and 2000s pop star power. It is mainly Kubuntu in disguise, however with Miley Cyrus wallpaper and a theme that screams “tween hacker stylish.” Was it steady? Not likely. Was it mandatory? Completely not. However generally, you don’t want a purpose—simply an ISO and slightly curiosity.

5

Custom-made My Terminal to Look Like a Hacker Film Set

Generally, you need your terminal to really feel prefer it’s working on a mainframe in a basement bunker. I went all-in on that aesthetic. I modified the colour scheme to green-on-black, put in neofetch, cmatrix, and sl, and added them to .bashrc for optimum aptitude:

        sudo apt set up cmatrix sl neofetch
echo "clear && neofetch && cmatrix -u 2" >> ~/.bashrc

    

That cmatrix -u 2 command is what launches the inexperienced scrolling textual content animation, just like the Matrix terminal impact. You may as well simply run cmatrix straight in any terminal to see it in motion. Should you’re utilizing GNOME Terminal or one thing comparable, you’ll be able to change the colour scheme manually: go to Preferences > [your profile] > Colours, and uncheck “Use colours from system theme.” Then set the background to black and textual content to inexperienced. Growth—immediate cinematic drama.

4

Performed a Full Sport within the Terminal Only for Nostalgia

Who wants Steam if you’ve received ASCII? I put in ninvaders—a terminal-based clone of Area Invaders—simply to see if it nonetheless held up. And actually? It was a blast. No mouse, no graphics—simply arrow keys and pure arcade vibes.

sudo apt set up ninvaders
ninvaders

The enemies transfer down line by line, and also you’ve received to shoot them earlier than they get too shut. It’s fundamental, it’s quick, and it sucked me in.

Wish to dive deeper? Discover different classics like bastet (Terminal Tetris), nsnake (Terminal Snake), and moon-buggy (Aspect-scrolling ASCII automobile jumper). They’re surprisingly addictive. And let’s be actual—generally it’s enjoyable to keep in mind that your terminal isn’t only for fixing issues. It’s for breaking excessive scores, too.

3

Dug Via Linux Easter Eggs Simply to See What Was Hiding

Linux has a bunch of bizarre, enjoyable, and infrequently pointless instructions that exist purely as a result of somebody thought they need to. Right here’s what they really do.

issue 1337

This breaks down a quantity into its prime elements. On this case, 1337 = 7 × 191.

cal 9 1752

This can present the calendar for September 1752. Traditionally, 11 days have been skipped through the swap to the Gregorian calendar. On most Linux techniques immediately, you’ll want to put in ncal to see this correctly.

shuf -n1 /usr/share/dict/phrases

Randomly picks a phrase from the system dictionary. Nice for password inspiration, challenge names, or existential confusion. A few of the extra ridiculous ones require a fast set up:

sudo apt set up fortune cowsay
fortune | cowsay

This combo spits out a fortune-cookie-style quote, then wraps it in a speech bubble coming from an ASCII cow.

sudo apt set up sl
sl

Mistype ls as sl? As an alternative of a “command not discovered,” you get a rushing ASCII practice throughout your display. (It stands for “Steam Locomotive.”)

And if you need one thing even greater than a single Easter egg, a complete simulated retro web is ready for you.

2

Explored Telehack: A Retro Web Time Machine

Generally you stumble into one thing that seems like discovering a secret degree of the web. Telehack is a simulated Nineteen Eighties–Nineteen Nineties-style web you’ll be able to discover straight out of your terminal or browser. You’ll be able to join by means of Telnet like this:

telnet telehack.com

Or you’ll be able to simply open telehack.com in any fashionable browser. Inside, you’ll discover vintage-style Unix instructions, old-school video games, and a complete community of simulated hosts to poke round. It is full of hidden jokes, throwback utilities like cowsay, and retro video games like 2048 and zork.

You’ll be able to even run starwars inside Telehack to look at a text-based Star Wars animation contained in the community. It is chaotic, nostalgic, and weirdly lovely. And better of all, it reminds you the way a lot character computing used to have.

1

Launched a Full Net Browser Via SSH

I wished to see if I may launch a full internet browser from one Linux machine and have it open on one other. To drag that off, I wanted to get X11 forwarding arrange first. Fortunately, it’s often easy on most techniques—you simply must verify a few settings. First, be certain X11 forwarding is enabled in your SSH server. You’ll must edit the SSH server configuration file:

sudo nano /and so on/ssh/sshd_config

Discover (or add) the road:

X11Forwarding sure

Then restart the SSH service:

sudo systemctl restart ssh

In your native machine, you’ll want an X11 server working when you’re utilizing Home windows (like Xming or VcXsrv). On Linux, it’s already baked in.

Now join utilizing:

ssh -X username@remote_server_ip

X11 forwarding isn’t safe by default and might expose your system if misused, particularly on shared or internet-facing servers. Should you’re doing this for enjoyable, stick with native VMs or take a look at environments the place you management either side.

As soon as logged in, any GUI program you launch will ahead its window again to your machine. I wished to see if I may launch a GUI browser remotely and have it seem on my native desktop. Firefox gave me hassle, however after I ran:

x-www-browser

Opera popped up—not on the VM’s display, however proper on my native show. x-www-browser opens no matter your system has set because the default browser. One essential factor to know is that since you’re working the precise browser course of on the distant machine, any bookmarks you save, historical past you generate, or settings you modify will probably be saved on the distant system, not your native one.

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Linux isn’t only a system—it’s a playground. These experiments weren’t environment friendly or helpful. However they made me giggle, taught me one thing bizarre, and jogged my memory that with Linux, you’re in control-even if all you do with it’s summon ASCII cows, fend off pixel aliens, or get misplaced in a retro web simulation.