State of Terminal Emulators in 2025: The Errant Champions

#1

Post by SG- » Mon, Nov 03, 2025, 2:40 PM UTC

State of Terminal Emulators in 2025: The Errant Champions
jeffquast.com

Re: State of Terminal Emulators in 2025: The Errant Champions

#2

Post by audidude » Mon, Nov 03, 2025, 4:44 PM UTC

So the state of 2025 then tests a VTE that is from 2023? 4 major releases behind? And through a GTK 3 app, not even a GTK 4 one which will use the GPU?

Re: State of Terminal Emulators in 2025: The Errant Champions

#3

Post by scuderiaseb » Mon, Nov 03, 2025, 4:53 PM UTC

Nothing even mentioned on WezTerm really?

Re: State of Terminal Emulators in 2025: The Errant Champions

#4

Post by embedding-shape » Mon, Nov 03, 2025, 5:01 PM UTC

audidude wrote: post #2

So the state of 2025 then tests a VTE that is from 2023? 4 major releases behind? And through a GTK 3 app, not even a GTK 4 one which will use the GPU?

Which one is that about specifically? Maybe the author could fix it.

Compared the results (https://ucs-detect.readthedocs.io/results.html#general-tabul...) with what I use day-to-day (Alacritty) and seems the results were created with the same version I have locally installed, from Arch/CachyOS repos, namely 0.16.1 (42f49eeb).

Re: State of Terminal Emulators in 2025: The Errant Champions

#5

Post by embedding-shape » Mon, Nov 03, 2025, 5:01 PM UTC

scuderiaseb wrote: post #3

Nothing even mentioned on WezTerm really?

It's in the results, even if not mentioned in the blogpost: https://ucs-detect.readthedocs.io/results.html#general-tabul...

Re: State of Terminal Emulators in 2025: The Errant Champions

#6

Post by milliams » Mon, Nov 03, 2025, 5:11 PM UTC

audidude wrote: post #2

So the state of 2025 then tests a VTE that is from 2023? 4 major releases behind? And through a GTK 3 app, not even a GTK 4 one which will use the GPU?

Likewise I noticed that Konsole was version 23.08. I've just submitted a PR (https://github.com/jquast/ucs-detect/pull/14) to update it to 25.08.

Re: State of Terminal Emulators in 2025: The Errant Champions

#7

Post by skerit » Mon, Nov 03, 2025, 5:26 PM UTC

I see Ghostty does not support (and does not plan on adding support for) Sixels, instead preferring the Kitty image protocol.

Now if the Kitty image protocol is so great and the Sixel stuff is so bad, ~~why is it only used in Kitty and Ghostty?~~

*Edit: it's also supported in Konsole, WezTerm, ... but still I'm interested in why we have 2 competing protocols right now.

Re: State of Terminal Emulators in 2025: The Errant Champions

#8

Post by didibus » Mon, Nov 03, 2025, 5:28 PM UTC

skerit wrote: post #7

I see Ghostty does not support (and does not plan on adding support for) Sixels, instead preferring the Kitty image protocol. Now if the Kitty image protocol is so great and the Sixel stuff is so bad, ~~why is it only used in Kitty and Ghostty?~~ *Edit: it's also supported in Konsole, WezTerm, ... but still I'm interested in why we have 2 competing protocols right now.

I think it's because Kitty and Ghostty are the newest terminals, so they came up with new modern options and solutions.

Re: State of Terminal Emulators in 2025: The Errant Champions

#9

Post by embedding-shape » Mon, Nov 03, 2025, 5:29 PM UTC

skerit wrote: post #7

I see Ghostty does not support (and does not plan on adding support for) Sixels, instead preferring the Kitty image protocol. Now if the Kitty image protocol is so great and the Sixel stuff is so bad, ~~why is it only used in Kitty and Ghostty?~~ *Edit: it's also supported in Konsole, WezTerm, ... but still I'm interested in why we have 2 competing protocols right now.

> Now if the Kitty image protocol is so great and the Sixel stuff is so bad, why is it only used in Kitty and Ghostty?

Images as in "pictures" or is that something else? I'm using Alacritty, and I don't think I've once thought "I need to see this image inside the terminal" and I do deal with images and frames from videos a lot. Probably if I saw it being added to Alacritty I'd think it was adding unnecessary bloat, so I wouldn't be surprised not every terminal is rushing to implement it.

Or I completely misunderstand what you're talking about.

Re: State of Terminal Emulators in 2025: The Errant Champions

#10

Post by porridgeraisin » Mon, Nov 03, 2025, 5:36 PM UTC

embedding-shape wrote: post #9

skerit wrote: post #7

I see Ghostty does not support (and does not plan on adding support for) Sixels, instead preferring the Kitty image protocol. Now if the Kitty image protocol is so great and the Sixel stuff is so bad, ~~why is it only used in Kitty and Ghostty?~~ *Edit: it's also supported in Konsole, WezTerm, ... but still I'm interested in why we have 2 competing protocols right now.

> Now if the Kitty image protocol is so great and the Sixel stuff is so bad, why is it only used in Kitty and Ghostty? Images as in "pictures" or is that something else? I'm using Alacritty, and I don't think I've once thought "I need to see this image inside the terminal" and I do deal with images and frames from videos a lot. Probably if I saw it being added to Alacritty I'd think it was adding unnecessary bloat, s…

Yes, pictures. It's quite useful. Opening images on remotes for one. Viewing plots arbitrary python scripts create for another.

Off the top of my head.