Ask HN: Which Linux terminal emulator do you prefer and why? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Which Linux terminal emulator do you prefer and why?

#11

Post by woodruffw » Fri, Aug 12, 2022, 9:52 PM UTC

I was a happy urxvt user for years, but switched to Alacritty[1] about a year or so ago. My main reasons for switching were wanting better emoji support (urxvt handles Unicode admirably, but not emoji) and wanting a better configuration language (I hate writing Xresource rules).

I don't believe it's had a 1.0 release yet, but it's been stable in my use cases, and (perceptively) performant.

[1]: https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty

Re: Ask HN: Which Linux terminal emulator do you prefer and why?

#12

Post by pxc » Fri, Aug 12, 2022, 9:53 PM UTC

I use tmux for all 'advanced' functionality, like scrollback and copy/paste, so I'm not picky as long as performance is good and basic features are present. The one thing is that I like to use a fullscreen dropdown terminal, so I do use Yakuake on KDE-based environments and Guake on GNOME-based ones.

Re: Ask HN: Which Linux terminal emulator do you prefer and why?

#13

Post by smcn » Fri, Aug 12, 2022, 9:53 PM UTC

Emacs with eshell for the most part.

If I need something else, I'll use whatever comes with the DE, typically gnome term. It's alright. I don't mind it. It doesn't excite me.

I used cool retro term for a week or two there for the nostalgia and it was nice but a bit much for daily work.

Re: Ask HN: Which Linux terminal emulator do you prefer and why?

#14

Post by peter-m80 » Fri, Aug 12, 2022, 9:55 PM UTC

Guake, for no reason. I tried it and fulfilled my needs.

Re: Ask HN: Which Linux terminal emulator do you prefer and why?

#15

Post by jolmg » Fri, Aug 12, 2022, 9:55 PM UTC

urxvt because of how light it is and because of its extensions, particularly the one for controlling the cursor with the keyboard. I often use it to do quick impromptu searches of the output of previous commands or to copy something. I also like the pseudo-transparency extension.

Re: Ask HN: Which Linux terminal emulator do you prefer and why?

#16

Post by t6jvcereio » Fri, Aug 12, 2022, 9:55 PM UTC

Follow up, what's the Linux terminal with the lowest latency? What about the one with the highest thru put? Debian if that matters

Re: Ask HN: Which Linux terminal emulator do you prefer and why?

#17

Post by bravetraveler » Fri, Aug 12, 2022, 9:57 PM UTC

I use Kitty!

Mainly because I wanted something a bit snappier than Tilix but configurable to basically behave the same way -- built in panes, same shortcuts, and input broadcasting. The last one took a script, but I've been happy with it.

An accelerated terminal is very helpful for watching tons of logs scroll by

Re: Ask HN: Which Linux terminal emulator do you prefer and why?

#18

Post by cbsks » Fri, Aug 12, 2022, 9:59 PM UTC

Kitty is an amazing terminal if you are willing to spend some time to learn and customize it. Take a look at the screencast on its website, it is super powerful and will make your coworkers and friends jealous.

https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/

Re: Ask HN: Which Linux terminal emulator do you prefer and why?

#19

Post by bibaheu » Fri, Aug 12, 2022, 9:59 PM UTC

peter-m80 wrote: post #14

Guake, for no reason. I tried it and fulfilled my needs.

Same here with Yakuake. It's always there

Re: Ask HN: Which Linux terminal emulator do you prefer and why?

#20

Post by lgeorget » Fri, Aug 12, 2022, 10:00 PM UTC

I use Konsole when I use Plasma and urxvt when I use Xmonad. Konsole is a no-brainer, it comes with the desktop environment and I like the ctrl+/ctrl- shortcuts to change the font size.

urxvt is more customizable, when I feel like it (that's also the case for Xmonad, now that I think about it).