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I have not tested specifically on Linux, but it should behave the same as on Windows. Basically...
0. You must have a Java 8 JRE (public, standalone) or JDK installed.
1. If PATH environment variable points to an Oracle client, SQLcl should automatically connect with OCI/Thick driver
2. If not, then SQLcl connects with Thin driver.
Once connected, you can verify the connection type by running...
show connection
which will display something like...
CONNECTION HR@jdbc:oracle:oci8:@ADC122PB
CONNECTION
HR@jdbc:oracle:oci8:@ADC122PB
or...
CONNECTION: HR@jdbc:oracle:thin:@(DESCRIPTION = (ADDRESS_LIST = (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = myhost.mycompany.com)(PORT = 1521)) ) (CONNECT_DATA = (SERVICE_NAME = orcl.mycompany.com) ) )
CONNECTION:
HR@jdbc:oracle:thin:@(DESCRIPTION = (ADDRESS_LIST = (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = myhost.mycompany.com)(PORT = 1521)) ) (CONNECT_DATA =
(SERVICE_NAME = orcl.mycompany.com) ) )
If it does not work on Linux as I describe above, then you can try passing the -oci flag when invoking SQLcl.