Linux / UNIX Desktop Fun: Let it Snow On Your Desktop

Feeling lonely this holiday season? Try Xsnow. This little app will let it snow on the Unix / Linux desktop. Santa and his reindeer will complete your festive season feeling with moving snowflakes on your desktop, with Santa Claus running all over the screen.

I first installed this 13 or 14 years ago. It was was originally created for Macintosh systems in 1984. You can install it as follows:

Install xsnow

Debian / Ubuntu / Mint users type the following command:
$ sudo apt-get install xsnow
Freebsd users type the following command to install the same:
# cd /usr/ports/x11/xsnow/
# make install clean
OR, try to add the package:
# pkg_add -r xsnow

A Note About Other Distros

1. Fedora / RHEL / CentOS Linux desktop users may find the package using rpmfusion repo.
2. Gentoo user try Gentoo portage i.e. emerge -p xsnow
3. OpenSuse Linux user try Yast and search for xsnow.

How Do I Use xsnow?

Open a command-line terminal (select Applications > Accessories > Terminal), and then type the following to starts xsnow:
$ xsnow
Sample outputs:

You can set the background to a blue color and lets it snow white, type:
$ xsnow -bg blue -sc snow
To set the maximum number of snowflakes and runs as fast as possible, type:
$ xsnow -snowflakes 10000 -delay 0
Do not display the trees and Santa Claus running all over the screen, enter:
$ xsnow -notrees -nosanta
For more information about xsnow and other options, please see the manual page by typing man xsnow from the command line:
$ man xsnow

Recommended readings:

• Download Xsnow from the official site.
• Please note that MS-Windows and Mac OS X version attracts one time shareware fee.

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This blog post is 3 of 5 in the "Linux / Unix Desktop Fun" series. Keep reading the rest of the series: