Unix/Linux online terminals or emulators to practice various Linux commands & testing scripts on command base online Virtual Linux machines such as Ubuntu, Centos, or Buildroot. Use them without installing OS physically on Windows, macOS, Android, or Linux PC; just what you need is a browser.
What are Virtual terminals in Linux?
Virtual Linux Terminal also known as Virtual Console (VC) is not a thing we are not acquainted with if you are a Linux user, except using it online, that could be a new thing. Each and every Linux operating system comes with Virtual Terminal that we use to operate and manage different services and apps on them. It allows the keyboard to input commands and computer displays for showing output; most of the Unix-like operating systems use Virtual Terminals such as BSD, Linux, illumos, and UnixWare. For example, if you are using Ubuntu Linux graphical version and want to access the full-screen terminal then simply press Ctrl+Alt+F1, and to come back to the graphical session use Ctrl+Alt+F7.
Thus, what is the difference between that and an online Linux terminal; the answer is not much except, that an online is one running on a remote server and available for you using the internet connection, remotely but with some limitations.
Now, Why do we use a Virtual Linux terminal online? Suppose you are a student or some beginner in software development who is eager to learn Linux commands, so, it is hard to install virtual machines on every local system to practice Linux commands; in that situation, you can use Linux online terminals for testing shell scripts, commands, or connecting some remote Linux server using SSH.
Although, with Windows 10’s WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) you don’t need Virtual machines to use Linux OS or terminal, yet, online Linux terminal simulators are the quickest methods where the only thing we need is the browser. It could be Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, or any other. It doesn’t matter if you are using Windows 10/8/7, Linux, macOS, or Android, it works everywhere.
Note: All virtual terminals mentioned here do not offer full-screen mode.
In this article, we will give answers to questions that arise after understanding the above paragraphs such as how do I run a Linux command Online? Which online Linux shell is available to use free of cost? and more…
Best online Linux terminals with root access
All below given online Linux terminals are free to use with root access where one can practice Linux commands without paying any dime, however, some may require a free registration process. Moreover, these are randomly listed and not on the basis of their features and capabilities.
Webminal- Online Linux/bash terminal
Webminal is really a wonderful Virtual Linux Terminal online for practicing various Linux commands. It is running on the remote server of the provider as a container or virtual machine. To use Webminal, the user first has to create a free account with them, and then this free online Linux learning platform is available in your browser.
We can use it not to only practice Linux commands but also for creating bash scripts, get familiar with MySQL tables, and learn programming languages such as Python, C, Ruby, Java, and Rust using Webminal IDE. However, the Webminal IDE online is free for a month after that a user needs to pay $2 per month which is an exiguous amount.
The online Linux terminal it provides is root access with 100M storage space, and the ability to create files up to 1000, 1MB is the maximum size of the file a user can create here; a user can run multiple terminals for up to 10 processes only. You can use both a keyboard and a mouse. The login and user ID for root on Webmail will be the same that a user has created during sign-up of an account.
Link to Offical Website to use Webminal
Codeanywhere
It is one of the best online Linux Terminal because it provides all one Virtual Web app to operate different Linux consols and cross-platform cloud IDEs.
Codeanywhere provides a full-fledged online Linux virtual machine running in containers such as Ubuntu and CentOS. Root access is there along with full control to destroy the virtual machine and its configuration. It gives a real feel of using Linux OS on a Virtual terminal. It has the ability to connect Dropbox, Google drive, FTP server, Amazon S3, Bitbucket OneDrive, and DigitalOcean to create Droplets directly from the Codeanywhere terminal, and more. You can create containers of Ubuntu and CentOS blank or with .NetCore/C++.
The only thing is Codeanywhere is not a completely free online Terminal, it provides 7 days free trial and after that basic plan charges $3/per month with some feature limitations, anyway the price is quite low and not a big deal if you really want to learn Linux commands and practice it from anywhere just using the internet connection and browser.
JSlinux best online terminal
Jslinux is another free online Linux terminal running that not only comprises Linux but also graphical Windows 2000. The Terminal access for Linux OSs it provides are Buildroot (embedded operating system) and Fedora along with FreeDOS VGA Text. Besides terminal access, Linux OS with an online graphical user interface is also available.
Jslinux Linux emulator has been developed using Javascript and also allows the users to upload files to virtual machines running on it. However, once you closed any running virtual machine all the uploaded data will be destroyed.
Copy.sh- Online Virtual Machine
Copy.sh is similar to Jslinux which provides multiple operating systems running online at their backend which we can access as online Virtual machines in our browsers. It provides Windows 98, Windows 1.01, KolibriOS, FreeDOS, and Archlinux. Windows 98 is with a graphical user interface while Linux can be operated using Virtual Linux Terminal in full-screen mode.
The project is available and can be started using GitHub.
Linux Containers (LXD) online
Linux containers provide 30 minutes of free usage of their demo environment with 4 sessions per IP limit, 2 CPU cores, 256MB RAM, 10GB of space, and IPv6-only network connectivity. The online terminal available here with root access with pre-installed LXD that you can use to install various Linux operating systems to operate them online using command terminals such as Ubuntu, Fedora, Alpine Linux, Centos, Gentoo, and OpenSUSE.
For example, if you want to create and use an online Ubuntu virtual machine on an LXD container then use the below commands after opening it:
For Ubuntu 18.04:
lxc launch ubuntu:18.04 first lxc list lxc exec first -- /bin/bash
For Centos:
lxc launch images:centos/6/amd64 my-centos lxc list lxc exec my-centos -- /bin/bash
And start using it.
Here is the link to free with limited-time LXD Terminal on Linux Containers.
JS/UIX- Online Virtual OS
JS/UIX, another free best virtual online Linux terminal based on UNIX-like operating written in Javascript to run using common browsers. It offers its own terminal that can support keyboard input that contains a Linux virtual machine, online Linux shell, virtual file system, and process management.
Here its the official website to use it and if you want commands to operate it then see its documentation.
LinuxZoo online Linux Emulator
It not only has an interesting name but also provides a useful multi-operating system environment, best to practice basic commands of Linux.
LinuxZoo is developed using Python and is one of the best Virtual Linux terminals online to use Centos 7, Kali, Windows 2008, and Windows 7 online virtual machines; GUI performance-wise it is also the best.
Unix Terminal of Tutorialspoint
If you are a developer then on Tutorialspoint you will find multiple Online Terminals, Editors to learn scripting languages, Document Editors (LaTex, AsciiDoc, Markdown, MathML, and reStructure); Online Compilers and Interpreters, and Advanced IDEs.
Other articles:
- Install Virt-manager on Ubuntu
- FreeNAS VM on VirtualBox
- How to install Virtualization-based Windows Sandbox on Windows 10?
Hi,
Your review of JSLinux is not accurate : it is possible to create an account and save your uploaded data.
Best regards,
Fabrice.
HTML Tutorial offer you to practise ur coding for free
There is a new option: https://rs1.es (RS1 Free Web Tools): you’ll get a full VPS (no emulators, with root access) you can access to with your browser or with an SSH client. I tested several of the above options and I think this is the best free, 1-click (no registration required) online Linux terminal.
Thank you for sharing this post