xargs or parallel: run things in parallel, with lots of options
sed and awk: more well-known but still super useful for processing text files, and faster than Python or Ruby
m4: simple macro processor
screen: powerful terminal multiplexing and session persistence
yes: print a string a lot
cal: nice calendar
env: run a command (useful in scripts)
look: find English words (or lines in a file) beginning with a string
cut and paste and join: data manipulation
fmt: format text paragraphs
pr: format text into pages/columns
fold: wrap lines of text
column: format text into columns or tables
expand and unexpand: convert between tabs and spaces
nl: add line numbers
seq: print numbers
bc: calculator
factor: factor integers
nc: network debugging and data transfer
dd: moving data between files or devices
file: identify type of a file
stat: file info
tac: print files in reverse
shuf: random selection of lines from a file
comm: compare sorted files line by line
hd and bvi: dump or edit binary files
strings: extract text from binary files
tr: character translation or manipulation
iconv or uconv: conversion for text encodings
split and csplit: splitting files
7z: high-ratio file compression
ldd: dynamic library info
nm: symbols from object files
ab: benchrmarking web servers
strace: system call debugging
mtr: better traceroute for network debugging
cssh: visual concurrent shell
wireshark and tshark: packet capture and network debugging
host and dig: DNS lookups
lsof: process file descriptor and socket info
dstat: useful system stats
iostat: CPU and disk usage stats
htop: improved version of top
last: login history
w: who's logged on
id: user/group identity info
sar: historic system stats
iftop or nethogs: network utilization by socket or process
ss: socket statistics
dmesg: boot and system error messages
(Linux) hdparm: SATA/ATA disk manipulation/performance
(Linux) lsb_release: Linux distribution info
(Linux) lshw: hardware information
fortune, ddate, and sl: um, well, it depends on whether you consider steam locomotives and Zippy quotations "useful"
sed and awk: more well-known but still super useful for processing text files, and faster than Python or Ruby
m4: simple macro processor
screen: powerful terminal multiplexing and session persistence
yes: print a string a lot
cal: nice calendar
env: run a command (useful in scripts)
look: find English words (or lines in a file) beginning with a string
cut and paste and join: data manipulation
fmt: format text paragraphs
pr: format text into pages/columns
fold: wrap lines of text
column: format text into columns or tables
expand and unexpand: convert between tabs and spaces
nl: add line numbers
seq: print numbers
bc: calculator
factor: factor integers
nc: network debugging and data transfer
dd: moving data between files or devices
file: identify type of a file
stat: file info
tac: print files in reverse
shuf: random selection of lines from a file
comm: compare sorted files line by line
hd and bvi: dump or edit binary files
strings: extract text from binary files
tr: character translation or manipulation
iconv or uconv: conversion for text encodings
split and csplit: splitting files
7z: high-ratio file compression
ldd: dynamic library info
nm: symbols from object files
ab: benchrmarking web servers
strace: system call debugging
mtr: better traceroute for network debugging
cssh: visual concurrent shell
wireshark and tshark: packet capture and network debugging
host and dig: DNS lookups
lsof: process file descriptor and socket info
dstat: useful system stats
iostat: CPU and disk usage stats
htop: improved version of top
last: login history
w: who's logged on
id: user/group identity info
sar: historic system stats
iftop or nethogs: network utilization by socket or process
ss: socket statistics
dmesg: boot and system error messages
(Linux) hdparm: SATA/ATA disk manipulation/performance
(Linux) lsb_release: Linux distribution info
(Linux) lshw: hardware information
fortune, ddate, and sl: um, well, it depends on whether you consider steam locomotives and Zippy quotations "useful"