I’ve spent 25 years in systems and tech, and I built PocketTerm because I realized that the initial learning curve for Linux can be a real barrier. Real VMs are heavy, and managing SSH keys just to practice grep or learn the FHS is a lot to ask of a beginner. This is the product I wish I'd had when I was first starting out in systems administration.

PocketTerm is a high-fidelity, browser-based Rocky Linux 9 simulation. Unlike simple regex-based wrappers, this uses a hand-rolled AST-based shell interpreter and a stateful Virtual Filesystem (VFS) that lives in your browser’s LocalStorage.

Why we built it this way:

Standard Stream Separation: We separate stdout and stderr in the pipeline—so if a command fails, the error hits your screen but won't pollute your data pipes.

Persistent Environment: Your files, configurations, and even simulated dnf installs survive refreshes and reboot cycles.

Zero Friction: Go from BIOS to a working Bash-like shell in under 2 seconds.

🚀 Want to test the engine? Try these:

• ls | grep Documents | wc -l — Tests AST Pipeline Routing
• ls /root | grep Permission — Tests stderr vs stdout separation
• touch hello.txt && reboot — Tests VFS Persistence
• rm -rf / — Tests System Path Guards

I’m looking for feedback from students, teachers, and senior devs alike. If you can find a command that turns my AST into a dumpster fire, I want to see it—I’m hunting for edge cases to keep hardening the engine!

Check it out here: https://edgaraidev.github.io/pocketterm/

PocketTerm

A zero-friction, browser-based Linux sandbox for learning.

A zero-friction, browser-based Linux sandbox for learning.