Linux is a treasure trove of powerful tools, many of which remain undiscovered by casual users. While staples like grep, awk, sed, and top dominate tutorials and guides, there's a second layer of utilities—lesser-known yet immensely powerful—that can dramatically improve your daily efficiency and control over your system.

In this article, we dive into 10 underrated Linux tools that can help you streamline your workflow, improve productivity, and unlock new levels of system mastery. Whether you’re a developer, sysadmin, or Linux hobbyist, these tools deserve a place in your arsenal.

1. fd: Find Files Fast with Simplicity

The traditional find command is incredibly powerful but notoriously verbose and complex. Enter fd, a modern, user-friendly alternative.

Why It Stands Out

• Cleaner syntax (fd pattern instead of find . -name pattern)

• Recursive by default

• Colorized output

• Ignores .gitignore files for cleaner results

Example

fd ".conf"

Finds all files containing .conf in the name, starting from the current directory.

Use Case

Quickly locate configuration files, scripts, or assets without navigating nested directories or crafting complex expressions.

2. bat: cat on Steroids

bat is a drop-in replacement for cat with superpowers. It adds syntax highlighting, Git integration, and line numbers to your file viewing experience.

Why It Stands Out

• Syntax highlighting for dozens of languages

• Git blame annotations

• Works as a pager with automatic line wrapping

Example

bat /etc/ssh/sshd_config

You’ll get a beautifully highlighted and numbered output, much easier to parse than with cat.

Use Case

Perfect for reading scripts, configs, and logs with visual clarity—especially helpful during debugging or code reviews.

3. ripgrep: Blazing-Fast Text Search

Also known as rg, ripgrep is a command-line search tool that recursively searches your current directory for a regex pattern, similar to grep—but much faster and more intuitive.