Thermionic electron beam is a fundamental part of all types of linear accelerators around the world in the field of Experimental High Energy Physics. Thermionic beam is very inexpensive and simple to produce. In this work, we give an overview of generation, design and applications of the electron beam with particular reference to e-beam generation at high energy linear accelerators. Experimental data are presented in tabular form for ready reference. We also make an evaluation of these high energy sources with our in-house designed e-beam gun. Finally, a comparison has been presented in terms of characteristic parameters of all these high performance sources.