Who loves eye candy? Don’t be shy — you can raise both hands!!
Linux Candy is a series of articles covering interesting eye candy software. We’re only featuring open source software in this series.
If you spend all day embroiled in data science, getting up to speed on new-fangled programming languages, or sit in countless boring meetings wishing you were elsewhere, you’ll definitely want some light relief at the end of the day. And what better way by making your desktop environment a bit more fun.
You might have heard of cowsay, software that generates ASCII pictures of a cow with a message. cowsay isn’t limited to cow depictions, it also shows other animals, including Tux the Penguin.
catspeak is a command-line tool that generates an ASCII picture with a message. It’s a cowsay like program of a speaking cat.
Installation
I evaluated catspeak with Ubuntu 25.10, but you’ll be able to build it with your distro of choice.
I took the manual approach here. First, clone the project’s GitHub repository.
Change into the newly created directory and build.
The project also provides a binary.
In Operation
Here are a few examples of the output.
Summary
Catspeak is harmless fun. There’s not a lot more to it than that, but it might just add a little spark to your shell.
The options are displayed below.
Website: github.com/SchweGELBin/catspeak
Support:
Developer: SchweGELBin
License: MIT License
catspeak is written in Rust. Learn Rust with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Complete list of articles in this series:
| Linux Candy | |
|---|---|
| ASCIIQuarium | Embrace marine life from the terminal with beautiful ASCII art |
| ASCII Art Converter | A small utility that converts images into ASCII art |
| asciify | Turn images into attractive ASCII art |
| ascii_moon | Displays the moon phase |
| BobRossQuotes | Collection of quotes from Bob Ross |
| Boxes | Command line ASCII boxes |
| Buoh | Online strips comics reader |
| cacafire | Color ASCII fire |
| catclock | xclock with an enhanced cat mode |
| catspeak | Like cowsay but catty |
| cbonsai | Generate bonsai trees in the terminal |
| christmasfetch | Festive cheer on the desktop |
| chucknorris | Chuck Norris jokes in your terminal |
| Clairvoyant | Like a magic 8-ball inspired fortune teller |
| cornyjokes | Corny jokes for the terminal |
| CMatrix | ncurses program that simulates the display from “The Matrix” |
| ctree | A Christmas tree right on your terminal |
| cutieascii | Displays random ASCII art emojis |
| doge | Simple motd script |
| eDEX-UI | Sci-fi computer terminal emulator and system monitor |
| emoj | Simple tool that to find suitable emojis for pasting to your clipboard |
| Emote | Modern popup emoji picker |
| Evolvotron | Interactive generative art |
| Fantascene | Dynamic wallpaper changer |
| Fondo | Find beautiful wallpapers from Unsplash |
| Fractal Art | Desktop wallpaper generator |
| gti | Typo-based curio inspired by Steam Locomotive |
| Hidamari | Python-based app that offers video wallpaper for Linu |
| Hollywood | Fill your console with Hollywood melodrama technobabble |
| lifecycler | Aquarium right in your terminal |
| linuxwave | Generate music from the entropy of Linux |
| Lolcat++ | Rainbows and unicorns |
| Meme | Fun tool to create memes |
| No More Secrets | Recreates the data decryption effect from the Sneakers movie |
| nook | Plays Animal Crossing hourly themes on the hour |
| nyancat | Terminal-based Pop Tart Cat Animation |
| oneko | Animal chasing fun |
| Picture Of The Day | Your daily wallpaper |
| pipes.sh | Animated pipes terminal screensaver |
| ponysay | cowsay reimplemention for ponies |
| projectM | Music visualizer originally based on Milkdrop |
| pscircle | A different take on the venerable ps command |
| PyBonsai | Generates procedural ASCII art trees |
| pyjokes | One line jokes for programmers |
| Pywal | Generate color schemes on the fly (not actively developed) |
| Relaxator | Relax to soothing sounds |
| ricksay | Rick and Morty quotes of the day |
| Rusty Aquarium | Monitoring by visualization |
| shuffle | ASCII art with a cool shuffle effect |
| sigye | Customizable terminal clock with Pomodoro functionality |
| Steam Locomotive | C program written in 295 lines. It's harmless fun |
| tanuki | Hourly animal crossing vibes |
| Ternimal | Animated lifeform in the terminal |
| terminal-parrot | Party parrot time |
| tetris | Tile-matching puzzle video game in your terminal |
| Variety | Wallpaper manager with many desktops and wallpaper sources |
| WallGen | Generate HQ poly wallpapers with a few arguments. |
| WallpaperDownloader | Download, change, and manage wallpapers |
| WallPicker | Modern GTK4/Libadwaita wallpaper picker |
| wallust | Create 16 color palettes |
| walrs | Fast colorscheme generator |
| WSelector | Browse, download, and set wallpapers from Wallhaven.cc |
| xcowsay | Displays a cow on your desktop with message |
| XDecorations | Add some festive cheer to your desktop |
| XScreenSaver | Framework and collection of screensavers |
| yosay | Like cowsay but with less cow |