A now-inactive blog reviewing lightweight terminal and minimalist Linux programs, run by the author of the earlier KMandla site.
HN commenters recommend it as a treasure trove of reviews of hundreds of CLI and TUI tools, though it stopped updating in 2015.
I would add another site to the list: https://inconsolation.wordpress.com/
You can find reviews of hundreds of CLI And TUI programs, some great, others barely known and clearly forgotten. The last review is from 2015. Some reviews are very short, others are more involved.
The site is a blog with a tagline "Adventures with lightweight and minimalist software for Linux". The author K.Mandla is opinionated and has certain preferences for such programs like [1].
I have not looked at the site in years, but if you are willing to explore, this could be a fun option to find a variety of these tools.
[1]: https://inconsolation.wordpress.com/2015/01/19/wpe-and-we-someones-been-reading-my-mind/
glances is nice if you want to get an overview of your system resources:
https://github.com/nicolargo/glances
bmon and iftop can be used to see network usage:
https://github.com/tgraf/bmon/
http://www.ex-parrot.com/pdw/iftop/
Similar to iftop there is also iotop, but instead of showing network usage, it shows disk usage:
http://guichaz.free.fr/iotop/
Side note: There was a blog a couple years ago, which isn't being updated now, that would post reviews of CLI tools. Anyone that is interested in this topic should take a look at it:
https://kmandla.wordpress.com/software/
https://inconsolation.wordpress.com/ (new blog from the same person that did http://kmandla.wordpress.com)
Not sure if this answers your question but I already ran a Matrix screensaver in a framebuffer on Linux ~16 years ago. As per this post I believe it was cmatrix [1]. There's a screenshot on that page. If you look carefully you can notice some odd symbols.
One could also use MPlayer + libcaca + framebuffer.
[1] https://inconsolation.wordpress.com/2013/09/23/cmatrix-none-the-worse-for-wear/
It is no longer updated, but I recommend https://inconsolation.wordpress.com/ as a very good read. From the about page:
>This blog is intended as a quick look at terminal-based applications available in Linux, and in some similar operating systems. Not only are these ideal for modern, low-power and space-saving computers, but they go a long way toward invigorating out-of-date hardware.
When talking about Linux workflows on older devices it is always worth it to remind people of the existence of kmandla[0] and their later website Inconsolation[1]
Too bad they don't seem to publish anymore.
[0] https://kmandla.wordpress.com/projects/
[1] https://inconsolation.wordpress.com/
Looks good.
I'd previously bookmarked this blog (closed in 2015) for
a large number of smaller utilities :
https://inconsolation.wordpress.com/
A bit of a treasure trove. I had a great time going through those reviews.