XPenguins is a program for animating cute cartoons animals in your root window. By default it will be penguins they drop in from the top of the screen, walk along the tops of your windows, up the side of your windows, levitate, skateboard, and do other similarly exciting things. Now you can send an army of cute little penguins to invade the screen of someone else on your network.
Install XPenguins
Open a command-line terminal (select Applications > Accessories > Terminal), and then type the following commands to install XPenguins program. First, type the command apt-get update to tell apt to refresh its package information by querying the configured repositories and then install the required program:
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install xpenguins
How do I Start XPenguins Locally?
Type the following command:
$ xpenguins
Sample outputs:
-
- An army of cute little penguins invading the screen
-
- Linux: Cute little penguins walking along the tops of your windows
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- Xpenguins Screenshot
Be careful when you move windows as the little guys squash easily. If you send the program an interupt signal (Ctrl-C) they will burst.
Themes
To list themes, enter:
$ xpenguins -l
Sample outputs:
Big Penguins Bill Classic Penguins Penguins Turtles
You can use alternative themes as follows:
$ xpenguins --theme "Big Penguins" --theme "Turtles"
You can install additional themes as follows:
$ cd /tmp
$ wget http://xpenguins.seul.org/xpenguins_themes-1.0.tar.gz
$ tar -zxvf xpenguins_themes-1.0.tar.gz
$ mkdir ~/.xpenguins
$ mv -v themes ~/.xpenguins/
$ xpenguins -l
Sample outputs:
Lemmings Sonic the Hedgehog The Simpsons Winnie the Pooh Worms Big Penguins Bill Classic Penguins Penguins Turtles
To start with a random theme, enter:
$ xpenguins --random-theme
To load all available themes and run them simultaneously, enter:
$ xpenguins --all
More links and information:
- XPenguins home page.
- man penguins
- More Linux / UNIX desktop fun with Steam Locomotive and Terminal ASCII Aquarium.
You should follow me on twitter here or grab rss feed to keep track of new changes.
This blog post is 4 of 5 in the "Linux / Unix Desktop Fun" series. Keep reading the rest of the series:- Terminal ASCII Aquarium
- Steam Locomotive
- Let it Snow On Your Desktop
- Summon Swarms Of Penguins To Waddle About The Desktop
- Text Mode Box and Comment Drawing
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
You missed something ;)
–> $ sudo apt-get install xpenguins
Thanks for the heads up!
To exit the theme: press Ctrl-c. But who wants to???
I really love it!!! So cute and fun. Thanks!
How do I do that? Say I want to send an army of penguins to invade the screen of friend who is running Ubuntu desktop at 192.168.1.100. How can I do that? My best guest is either install xpenguins on 192.168.1.100 or do some trick with ssh -X option.
I wanna know too!
It can’t be done – don’t know how the author decided it could be.
@All, I think it was a *Joke*.
good job,what a wonderful idea!!
i liked it. i will give a try for xpenguins :)
I really love it!!! So cute and fun. Thanks!
Too awesome. Thanks!
But it stop the programme as I close terminal. How Can Linux start xpenguins by itself at stratup ?
Bodhi Linux can run selected Xpenguins as a ‘gadget’. They can be switched off or can run automatically at start – up, The Xpenguin website xpenguins.seul.org seems to be down though so I have no idea how the switching on/off works, except through Terminal. Glad to hear from anyone who knows the answer.