Here are 41 even more modern, powerful and lesser-known Linux terminal commands, designed to boost productivity, system monitoring, troubleshooting, and development for linux cli. Most of them replace command you already know. Use aliases to use the old command so it doesn’t get annoying. I use these on Nix, Debian and Arch based distros but these should also work with others. These were found from this video by NetworkChuck.
fd – Better alternative to find, with smart defaults.
fzf – FuzzyFinder for interactive command filtering.
zoxide (Z) – Smarter, context-aware cd.
exa – Enhanced ls with colors, tree view, icons.
glances – Real-time system monitoring dashboard.
NCDU – Interactive disk usage analyzer.
duf – Prettier version of df.
ripGrep (rg) – Fast, powerful search tool.
mosh – SSH alternative with roaming support.
lshw – View detailed hardware info.
MTR – Combines ping and traceroute, real-time network diagnostics.
ranger – Terminal-based file manager. - Crashing in nix womp );
iotop – Disk I/O monitoring.
stat – Detailed file info.
dstat – Combines vmstat, iostat, netstat, etc.
watch – Re-run commands at intervals.
progress – Monitor progress of running commands (like scp).
dog – Colorful, modern alternative to dig for DNS.
termshark – TUI for packet capture analysis.
lsof -i – See which process uses which port.
ipcalc – Subnet calculator.
wormhole – Secure, peer-to-peer file transfer.
systemd-analyze – Diagnose slow boot times.
procs – Modern alternative to ps.
lazyDocker – TUI for Docker management.
rsync – Smart file syncing.
shred – Secure file deletion.
moreutils – Misc. small useful tools (ts, vidir, vip, etc.).
unp – Automatically unpacks any archive.
jq – Query and manipulate JSON in CLI.
taskWarrior – CLI-based task manager.
asciinema – Record and share terminal sessions.
asciinema-agg – Turn terminal recordings into GIFs.
Fabric – Use AI from CLI to analyze and generate commands.
Olama – Local LLM for command suggestions.
VIP – Edit command pipeline output in a text editor.
Error handling tools – Like errno, ifdata.
Tools like Fabric and Olama integrate AI into the CLI for generating, summarizing, or explaining commands. Example: Ask AI to analyze logs or summarize most-used commands.
The video emphasizes turning your Linux terminal into a superpowered productivity hub through visual tools, AI integration, better replacements for classic commands, and advanced system monitoring. Perfect for devs, sysadmins, and power users. Final Note: The creator encourages viewers to comment their favorite commands and “ethically hack” the YouTube algorithm by liking, subscribing, and engaging.