@Wolf480pl @byllgrim

@poetgrant

Depending on distro you will have access to various linux framebuffer based apps.

Try out w3m and see images, distro depending you can use mplayer or gstreamer via the framebuffer for those cat/dog/aardvark videos too.

I have a list somewhere of the apps I used when I did not use X

Also check out directfb, although I am not sure if they are still an active project (they did an in kernel framebuffer based window manager too)