Linux Easter Eggs

Easter Eggs in programming are undocumented features.  These are usually passed down by word of mouth.  Here are three

Free the Fish

This is a GUI Egg..

Hit [Alt] + [F2] – This opens the command-line dialog which is similar to the Windows “Start| Run..” sequence.  In the dialog box, type “free the fish”  without the quotes, and a little graphical fish will swim in from the lower left of your screen.  The fish does not appear to be for doing anything, but it is entertaining.  If you click on the fish, it escapes off the screen and does not reappear.    This worked in Fedora8 when I tested it – even on the Live disc of Fedora8, also on Ubuntu 8.10

Apt-get Egg

“This Apt Has Super Cow Powers”

Since Apt-Get is a debian-linux package-management command, I canb only guarantee that you will get to try it in Debian or Ubuntu. I saw it in Ubuntu since its inception. If the egg is present, there will be a line at the bottom of the help screen that says “This Apt Has Super Cow Powers.” To check this, open a terminal window and type “apt-get -h” without the quotes.
If you see the line, “This APT has Super Cow Powers,” type apt-get moo on the command line to get a word-art cow.

Aptitude Egg

“This Apt Does Not Have Super Cow Powers”

Aptitude is another debian/Ubuntu package manager. Open a terminal window and type “aptitude moo” without the quotes. Aptitude will respond that there arte no easter eggs in Aptitude. If you persist and type in the sequence:

• aptitude moo
• aptitude -v moo
• aptitude -vv moo
• aptitude -vvv moo
• aptitude -vvvv moo
• aptitude -vvvvv moo

you will get a series of entertaining messages with a call-out to “The Little Prince.”  Give it a try!  These are not Cheat-codes for the programs.  They are fun and whimsical entertainments.