Linux doesn't even install a command line shell by default, so I think that goes without saying :)

In my experience telnet (also nc) is installed by default on most GNU/Linux distributions. But not on Windows or Mac.

> Telnet has not been installed on any OS (including Linux) for years now.

FreeBSD has it out the box.

> And this is the Right Thing(TM) to do.

Why? Telnet is just a application, client. A telnet-like server, I could understand. The telnet client does lots of things and handy ones too. It's a raw protocol allowing you to send whatever data you desire.

Checking if the web server is responding correctly, sometimes you need to troubleshoot HTML headers and telnet is perfect for that as well as checking ports too to name a few.

Just checked my Ubuntu WSL, and telnet is installed. I don't think I would've installed that myself.

My memory of modern Linux distros is that it is still installed, but that the telnet daemon is disabled by default.