The number of Linux Desktop automation and QA tools is rather limited. But the good news is that everything that one really needs is available.

To goal of this blog post is to give a short and concise overview of all available Linux automation tools. We separate this overview in

• Linux command line tools (suited for developers)
• Linux Keyboard Macro tools
• Linux RPA software (Robotic Process Automation)

Linux Command Line Automation Tools

Bash

Any Linux automation overview needs to start with Bash. However, while automating desktop applications with bash scripting is possible, it is rather tricky. Serious time and programming knowledge is required.

Linux Keyboard Macro tools

XMacro

A C++ based simple macro recoder tool for Linux.

Atbswp

This is a Python based simple macro recoder tool for Linux. Automate the boring stuff with Python, allows the user to record his mouse and keyboard actions and reproduce them identically as many times as he wants.

RPA software

RPA software is the newest and most modern automation approach to Linux desktop automation. RPA software can “see”. It uses image recognition and OCR to automate desktop tasks. Thus it can automate whatever you see on a computer monitor. So, for example, unlike all the other tools listed on this page, RPA software can read data from an invoice or from a video, and then make a decision based on this value. It is also useful for functional testing of Linux desktop applications.

The selection of RPA software for Linux is small. All of the RPA dinosaur brands like UIPath, Microsoft Flow or AutomationAnywhere are available for Windows only.

However, there is our UI Vision tool – it is a cross-platform RPA software that runs well many flavors of Linux (Ubuntu, OpenSuse, CentOS, Fedora), and can do Linux desktop automation just as well as Windows and Mac desktop automation.