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What's a good Linux terminal emulator that doesn't try to reinvent TMUX?

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Re: What's a good Linux terminal emulator that doesn't try to reinvent TMUX?

#22
I use urxvtd and LOVE it. It's blissfully fast with a smaller memory footprint than anything else I've tried.

edit: I should have mentioned, having the minimal overhead and most responsive terminal is a "tier 1" priority for me.

Urxvtd is the fastest, and lightest weight terminal period.

Either that, or something has changed since I spent a long time picking it.

Re: What's a good Linux terminal emulator that doesn't try to reinvent TMUX?

#23

Alacritty is simple and fast[0] (it does have mouse support, but no tabs, sessions, or startup scripts as far as I know. Configuration is all via config file.). Is that the kind of thing that you were looking for? [0] https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty

Regarding terminal emulators, I believe that by "fast" people usually mean "low latency" instead of "high throughput". Apparently alacritty has a good performance on thoughtput according its benchmark with vtebench, but it does not provide good latency performance according to [0].

[0] https://danluu.com/term-latency/

Re: What's a good Linux terminal emulator that doesn't try to reinvent TMUX?

#25

Alacritty is simple and fast[0] (it does have mouse support, but no tabs, sessions, or startup scripts as far as I know. Configuration is all via config file.). Is that the kind of thing that you were looking for? [0] https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty

Doesn't it feel sketchy to run a terminal that isn't even packaged by Debian? I run a few non-packaged things, but I don't want my terminal, or shell, or kernel to be "some code from a some person on github".

Re: What's a good Linux terminal emulator that doesn't try to reinvent TMUX?

#27
Most distro-default/DE-default terminal emulators don't really make you do 'more' than just have a base terminal emulator. The extra stuff (in the likes of gnome-terminal for example) only surfaces when you actually use it, except for when you have duplicate key binds. If you don't use a DE, or don't like Qt/GTK based engines, urxvt and xterm are the best remaining options.

Zutty is an option if you don't mind trying (often) unpackaged software, but then st would fit as well with the performance difference being that Zutty leverages GPU rendering for more performance and st doesn't seem to do that by itself.

If graphics isn't your thing and you're just on the frame buffer directly, there is fbterm.

A lot of the 'advertised' emulators seem to be targeting aesthetic and 'cool' marketability, some are even based on electron or try to put filters on the output...

Re: What's a good Linux terminal emulator that doesn't try to reinvent TMUX?

#28
post #25

Alacritty is simple and fast[0] (it does have mouse support, but no tabs, sessions, or startup scripts as far as I know. Configuration is all via config file.). Is that the kind of thing that you were looking for? [0] https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty

Doesn't it feel sketchy to run a terminal that isn't even packaged by Debian? I run a few non-packaged things, but I don't want my terminal, or shell, or kernel to be "some code from a some person on github".

Idk man, this is a successful project that's half a decade old[1], has over 40k stars, is wildly popular in eg. the UnixPorn and TWM communities, and is packaged by most other distros; I don't really see any cause for concern ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[1]: Dated via the dev's release blog post: https://jwilm.io/blog/announcing-alacritty/

Re: What's a good Linux terminal emulator that doesn't try to reinvent TMUX?

#29

Konsole is faster than Alacritty, but much easier to configure. uxterm is the fastest. Latency in milliseconds Program mean std min 90% max uxterm 1.7 0.3 0.7 2 2.4 mlterm 1.8 0.3 0.7 2.2 2.5 Konsole 13.4 1.2 11.5 15 16.1 Alacritty 15.1 1.2 12.8 15.9 26.3

Unsure how that was measured, but I'd like to see urxvtd up there. I'd bet a beer it's statistically significant faster. :)

Re: What's a good Linux terminal emulator that doesn't try to reinvent TMUX?

#30
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't it feel sketchy to run a terminal that isn't even packaged by Debian? I run a few non-packaged things, but I don't want my terminal, or shell, or kernel to be "some code from a some person on github".

Idk man, this is a successful project that's half a decade old[1], has over 40k stars, is wildly popular in eg. the UnixPorn and TWM communities, and is packaged by most other distros; I don't really see any cause for concern ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ [1]: Dated via the dev's release blog post: https://jwilm.io/blog/announcing-alacritty/

twm the windowmanager?
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