If you want to try using a Linux terminal and you’re not sitting near a Linux system, don’t despair. Some services will let you run a Linux terminal in a browser. This article takes a look at some of them and should give you an idea of ​​what you can do and what performance you might experience.

The Linux terminal sessions described here were all run on a Windows system using a Chrome browser. While you could just as easily run a Linux terminal in a browser on a Linux system, you’d probably be less motivated to do so.

JSLinuxName

JSLinux is basically a computer implemented in JavaScript. So all you have to do is open a browser and type in the correct URL to get started.

You will find available links to JSLinux via this site:

https://bellard.org/jslinux/

Of the eight systems listed, six are Linux. Choose one of the console windows listed. These URLs include:

I prefer the Fedora 33 implementation of JSLinux because it includes man pages while the other two don’t seem to.

You will eventually be logged in as root, although the who will not be available to acknowledge your attendance. Even so, the who am I and the pwd command will confirm your identity:

localhost:~# who; whoami; pwd
sh: who: not found
root
/root

If you wish, you can compile the Hello C program and run it, you should see this.

localhost:~# cc -o hello hello.c
localhost:~# ls
bench.py hello hello.js hello.c readme.txt
localhost:~# hello
sh: hello: not found
localhost:~# ./hello
hello world

You might want to run some of your favorite Linux commands, create a script or two, and explore the command line. I assembled and ran a simple bash script to count the files in each of the directories in my search path.

$ cat count_commands
#!/bin/bash

for dir in `echo $PATH | sed “s,:, ,g”`
do
  echo $dir
  ls $dir | wc -l
  echo “==========”
done

[[email protected] ~]# ./count_commands
/usr/local/sbin
0
===========
/bin
2349
===========
/sbin
609
===========
/usr/bin
2349
===========
/usr/sbin
609
===========
/usr/local/bin
9

Obviously, the system is equipped with many Linux commands.

If you are having trouble trying to run a script, source the script like this:

[[email protected] ~]# ./count_commands
sh: ./count_commands: not found
[[email protected] ~]# . count_commands

Even with the current filesystem location in my search path on one of the systems, I needed to source the script to make it work.

To check your search path, use a command like this:

$ echo $PATH
/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin

The manual page directories on Fedora look like this:

[[email protected] ~]# ls /usr/local/share/man
man1   man2   man3   man4   man5   man6   man7   man8   man9   mann
man1x  man2x  man3x  man4x  man5x  man6x  man7x  man8x  man9x
[[email protected] ~]# ls /usr/share/man
ca  es  it     man1   man2x  man4   man6   man8   mann  pt_BR  sv     zh_TW
cs  fr  ja     man1p  man3   man4x  man6x  man8x  nl    ru     tr
da  hu  ko     man1x  man3p  man5   man7   man9   pl    sk     uk
de  id  man0p  man2   man3x  man5x  man7x  man9x  pt    sr     zh_CN

Running a manpage command when manpages are available works as expected.

[root#localhost !]# man date
[[email protected] ~]# DATE(1)                          User Commands                         DATE(1)
 
NAME
       date - print or set the system date and time
 
SYNOPSIS
       date [OPTION]... [+FORMAT]
       date [-u|—utc|—universal] [MMDDhhmm[[CC]YY][.ss]]
 
DESCRIPTION
       Display the current time in the given FORMAT, or set the system date.
 
       Mandatory  arguments  to  long  options are mandatory for short options
       too.
...

Asking for the IP address of the system I was using, I saw the loopback interface (127.0.0.1) and a 10.xxx internal address.

localhost:~$ ip a
1: lo:  mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0:  mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UNKNO
WN qlen 1000
    link/ether 02:46:81:31:ca:a3 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 10.5.218.60/16 brd 10.5.255.255 scope global dynamic eth0
       valid_lft 817sec preferred_lft 667sec

NOTE: When you open one of these JSLinux consoles, you always boot to the same place: a new Linux terminal. Any scripts or changes you make will not be retained in any way.

copy.sh

Copy.sh is another virtualization tool that lets you run Linux (or a number of other operating systems) in a browser. To see all the available options, go to http://copy.sh/v86/. You’ll find a few dozen options that include Windows, FreeBSD, Oberon, and a number of others besides Linux.

I looked at these options:

The Damn Small Linux option provides a GUI that I haven’t fully explored yet.

Again, how to run my script varied depending on the distro I was using. I had to source my script from the buildroot terminal, but not on the archlinux a.

~% cat showme
#!/bin/bash

echo “Hi, there”
echo -n “What are you looking for?: “
read ans
echo “Sorry, I have never heard of coffee”
~% .showme
./showme: not found
~% . ./showme
Hi, there
What are you looking for?: coffee
Sorry, I have never heard of coffee

I also ran count_commands script

~% . ./count_commands
/sbin
55
===========
/usr/sbin
32
===========
/bin
75
===========
/usr/bin
131
===========

One of the things that I really liked copy.sh was that it gave me the option to “Save State” and “Load State”. This means that I was able to keep the scripts I added and retrieve them the next time I logged in from the v86state.bin file that had been saved on my system.

The only strange problem I encountered with the copy.sh involved terminals to use Control-Alt+Delete followed by hitting “Cancel” to free my trackball from the clutches of the terminal.

Conclude

The speed of terminal options in a browser isn’t always impressive, but it’s nice to try Linux in a browser and explore what it can do for you. Many Linux commands are available, and despite some quirks and performance issues, virtualized Linux systems can be very enjoyable to use.