Fastfetch: What it is and how to install it

Last update: 17/08/2024
Author Cristian Garcia

Fastfetch: What it is and how to install it

Are you a Linux enthusiast? So we understand that you have entered this article that is going to be about Fastfetch: What it is and how to install it. With this article you will understand what it is and how it works to be able to control this tool designed to show us detailed information about the system in a very quick and simple way but above all, visually or aesthetically. 

We assume that you may also know Neofetch as it is another quite famous detailed information tool. We have written this article about that, which may also interest you. Neofetch: the tool to customize your system with detailed information. This way you clear up doubts about both tools. We are also going to teach you how to install Fastfetch on your Linux system, Don't worry, but that will be later, first let's talk about what Fastfetch is.

What is Fastfetch? The data tool that replaces Neofetch

Fetch
Fetch

To start talking about these tools, we should first know what "Fetch" is or what it means in Linux, and so as not to delay the objective of this article any longer, we can tell you that a fetch is a program based on Linux that has the purpose of The objective is to show us on different screens a very informative summary of the technical characteristics of your computer and the operating system. that is running at that moment. Thanks to Fetch you will be able to know essential data instantly. There are similar programs on Windows and MacOS but as you can imagine here on Linux, it looks more like a typical Windows command console.

Once we know this, we can tell you that Fastfetch is a tool for recover basic information of the system and so that the user can understand it, it shows it in a more visual way. Similar to the previous image that we have left you. Today, Fastfetch works on the following operating systems: Linux, Android, FreeBSD, MacOS and Windows 7 onwards. It is similar to Neofetch, as we told you, with the difference that in this case it is programmed in C and is faster and more efficient, therefore it is a better alternative to Neo. If you've come this far, we already know what Fastfetch is: What it is and how to install it, but we're going to give you some more details:

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Fastfetch shows different information such as:

  • Information about the operating system, such as its version and distribution or Kernel name.
  • Hardware installed on the PC, such as RAM, your graphics card and everything else you can imagine.
  • Information about him environment desktop and the window manager, that is, it will show us if you use GNOME, KDE, Xfce...
  • System settings or theme, things as simple as icons, window theme or the font used.
  • Extra information such as the activity, the use of system resources and other useful information at different times.

It can be said that Fastfetch is widely used by Linux users to summarize their system on the Internet. In the end, the Linux community helps each other and is very united in forums or social networks to constantly share information.

Main differences between Fastfetch and Neofetch

Before going on to show you how to use Fastfetch: What it is and how to install it, we are going to tell you what the main differences between these tools, Since we have previously left you some insight into it, but we want to go deeper so that you know why Fastfetch is a better alternative to use if you want to display system data.

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As we told you, both tools have similar functions but the main differences in favor of Fastfetch are the following:

  • Fastfetch is much faster due to its programming, it takes much less time than Neofetch to show you the data you need.
  • fastfetch uses much fewer resources than Neo to show you its data, so if your Linux system is limited in terms of hardware, don't hesitate, Fastfetch is much better than its sister tool.
  • Fastfech is a lot more customizable than Neofetch. It's not that his brother isn't, it's that Fastfetch is more so. It also offers you configuration options so that you can obtain more or less data on the screen or the data that interests you. It is totally up to the taste of the user of the tool.

How to install Fastfetch

fastfetch git
fastfetch git

 

And as promised, let's move on to the how part of the Fastfetch article: What it is and how to install it. We understand that being a Linux user (mainly) you will have knowledge of code, so this will be very easy for you. Depending on the Linux distribution you use, your installation will vary., keep that in mind. But we are going to leave you the code for each of them or at least for the most used ones. What we will put in quotes is the code to use.

Installing Fastfetch on Ubuntu and Debian

To install Fastfetch on Ubuntu or Debian-based systems you will have to do the following:

  1. Update the software repositories with this code: "sudo apt update"
  2. Install the dependencies necessary: ​​"sudo apt install git build-essential cmake libpci-dev libvulkan-dev"
  3. Clone the Fastfetch repository (uses git): "git clones https://github.com/LinusDierheimer/fastfetch.git»
  4. Compile and install it: "cd fastfetch mkdir -p build && cd build cmake .. make sudo make install»
  5. run it: "fastfetch"
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Installing Fastfetch on Arch Linux

  1. Install an AUR wizard (if you don't already have it installed): "sudo pacman -S yay"
  2. Install Fastfetch from AUR: "yay -S fastfetch"
  3. Run Fastfetch: “fastfetch”

Installing Fastfetch on Fedora

  1. Install the necessary dependencies: "sudo dnf install git gcc cmake make pciutils vulkan-devel"
  2. Clone the repository: "git clone https://github.com/LinusDierheimer/fastfetch.git"
  3. Compile and install Fastfetch: «cd fastfetch mkdir -p build && cd build cmake .. make sudo make install»
  4. Run Fastfetch: “fastfetch”

How to customize Fastfetch?

Fastfetch: What it is and how to install it

To finish this article about Fastfetch: What it is and how to install it, we are going to give you some extra commands to customize the tool. The most useful in our opinion are:

  • Show operating system information: "fastfetch –os"
  • Change the color schemer: «fastfetch –color-scheme dracula»
  • Exploring all customization options from Fastfetch: «fastfetch —help»

We hope this article about Fastfetch: What it is and how to install it has been helpful to you. As you have been able to read, if you are a Linux user (mainly), it will be very helpful to you. obtain visual information about your system, hardware, resources and others and also in a very detailed and fast way. If you like to have control over everything you have in your hands, you have to give this tool that Linux offers us a chance. Don't hesitate to install it and play around with Fastfetch! We leave you a link to github with their corresponding downloads for each version of Linux.