Here’s how to change the “Welcome to Darwin!” message when you open a new terminal. Simply open: /etc/motd and change the contents to whatever you like. I favour “Welcome to Hell!”

Update: As of Leopard you may find that the motd (Message of the Day) file no longer exists. If this is the case then you just need to create it. The contents will then be displayed each time you open a new Terminal window.

Comments:

Leo - Sep 4, 2007

Great. thanks!

gladys cochrane - Aug 5, 2010

I tried /etc/motd and the message was Permission denied

Intricate Patterns - Jun 2, 2011

For that case, try:

sudo pico /etc/motd

“sudo” means “superuser do” and uses superuser permissions (but requires the admin password.) “pico” opens a primitive text editor.