Want to learn Linux? These 5 games make it fun – and they're free

ZDNET’s key takeaways

• If you need to up your Linux skills, play a game.
• There are several games, each focusing on a different skill.
• These games are free to play as often as you need.

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For many, the idea of learning Linux is a task best left to the geeks. The good news is that desktop Linux has become so easy to use that you don’t have to worry about the challenges that may have kept you from diving in. With modern Linux desktop distributions, there’s no need to learn the command line or the more advanced tools (such as YaST).

Now, if you want to really get the most out of Linux, or are considering a career as a Linux administrator, you’ll need to learn considerably more… including the command line. Now that can be intimidating, especially to those who’ve never opened a terminal window or typed a command.

Also: The first 5 Linux commands every new user should learn

There’s a bit of good news. You can make learning more advanced Linux concepts easier with the help of a few games.

If you’ve never experienced “gamified learning,” you’re in for a treat because it not only makes learning easy but also fun.

There are a few games that are geared specifically for learning Linux skills, and I’m going to introduce you to them now.

1. OverTheWire

OverTheWire is a collection of web-based games that challenge you to perform tasks. One of the best things about the OverTheWire games is that they teach you how to solve problems on your own and do so with Linux commands, file permissions, network protocols, text encoding, and more. 

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Currently, there are 12 games, such as Bandi, which is aimed at absolute beginners and teaches the basics necessary to play the other games. There’s also:

• Natas, which teaches the basics of server-side web security.
• Leviathan, which teaches basic Linux commands.
• Krypton, which teaches file encoding.
• Narnia, which teaches basic exploitation.
• Behemoth, which deals with regular vulnerabilities.
• Utumno, which teaches more advanced concepts (and even leaves out a description, so you have no idea what you’re getting into).
• Maze, which teaches more advanced exploitation techniques, programming, and reverse engineering.
• Vortex, which teaches connecting to non-standard ports.
• Manpage, which is all about breaking common Linux C programming misconceptions.
• Drifter, which is similar to vortex but is more advanced.
• Formula One, which teaches you security concepts.

2. cmdchallenge

The idea behind cmdchallenge is simple: solve problems given to you with nothing more than the command line. This is a web-based game, so there’s nothing to install. For example, you might be challenged to print “hello world” on the terminal with a single command (echo “hello world”) or print the current working directory (pwd). 

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Every time you get a command right, you are asked to solve another challenge. As you complete each task, it gets slightly more challenging, so the longer you play, the more you’ll learn.

3. Terminus

Terminus is an interesting terminal adventure app game where you explore a virtual world via Linux commands. For example, you issue the ls command to see what locations are available. You might see WesternForest listed, so you go there with cd WesternForest. When you do that, an image appears to show you what you see. 

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You keep exploring different locations and solving puzzles with commands like ls, cd, less, etc. The goal of this game is to learn how to navigate the Linux filesystem.

4. Bashcrawl

Bashcrawl is a game you install on your Linux machine to help you learn the basics of Linux, BSD, and UNIX terminals. You don’t actually install the app, but download the source, unpack it, and then cd into the entrance subdirectory of the newly created directory. You can then read the scroll file with less scroll to find out what to do next. 

The fun really starts when you can cast “spells” with commands, like ls -F. Directories (rooms within the “catacombs”) end with /, and encounters (programs) end with *. You collect treasure and do all sorts of dungeon crawler-esque things. 

5. Root Me

Root Me is more advanced and focused on cybersecurity. This is similar to WarGames, in that it hosts several different challenges in one location. With Root Me, you tackle real-world challenges, such as file forensics, privilege escalation, and more. 

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Root Me is not for beginners, but for those with enough Linux skills to understand the concepts and issue the correct commands. You do have to create an account, but it’s free to use. There are over 600 challenges to take on with Root Me, as well as 178 different virtual environments, and 6063 solutions.

All of the above games are free to use as much as you need, and can really help you start to grasp various Linux concepts and commands.

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