I know this probably comes up a lot and is liable to spark some debate, but I’m curious what the good options are for terminals. I’ve skimmed some reddit/lemmy posts about it and looked at a few options and I dunno how to decide between them because they all seem like they’re too narrowly focused on some particular use case. I’m just using it for general terminal stuff, nothing terribly fancy. I’m aware that there’s not one terminal to rule them all or anything, so I’m curious: what do you folks use, and more importantly, why do you use that over the (many) other options available?

Personally I’ve just been using konsole since it’s what came with kde and it seems nice and all, but I feel like I’m missing out on features I don’t even know about. One feature that might be nice is some kind of local LLM integration so I can get help on how to tinker with settings and such where i’m doing the tinkering instead of constantly tabbing out to duck.ai or w/e.

  • @[email protected]
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    64 days ago

    Anything is fine unless you’re using the terminal very heavily. Almost all of my workflow is within the terminal so I want everything to be as fast as possible. I want a minimal, low config, fast terminal that has the exact same behavior when using the same config on Linux and MacOS (I know, fuck me, I have to use it for work). And those are Alacritty and Ghostty. I hate Alacritty’s horrible icon so I use Ghostty.

  • @[email protected]
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    4 days ago

    If you want features, I suggest you try Kitty. It is probably the terminal with the most features. I personally prefer Alacritty because it is quite bare and doesn’t have all that fancy stuff that I don’t need (and that takes up cpu cycles).

  • @[email protected]
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    5 days ago

    The one that comes with your DE is generally just fine, unless you’re a serious terminal user.

    One feature that might be nice is some kind of local LLM integration so I can get help on how to tinker with settings and such

    I think that’s a quick way to nuke your install, LLMs are generally wrong about what commands to run and don’t understand enough to know when something is dangerous. All it takes is changing one wrong file and everything breaks.

    • Libra00OP
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      25 days ago

      Fair, I’m definitely not a ‘serious’ terminal user.

      Yeah I was wondering about that, it’d be nice to have an LLM that’s specifically trained on like linux system configs and shit, but that’s well beyond the scope of my capabilities, so if it doesn’t already exist I’m just SOL on that one.

      • @[email protected]
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        105 days ago

        Yeah I mean even if it was trained specifically for that, they often will still be incorrect because they don’t actually understand the concepts they’re presenting.

  • @[email protected]
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    145 days ago

    Konsole, because it fits in nicely with Plasma (as you would expect) and does everything I need a terminal to do.

  • @[email protected]
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    105 days ago

    I am perfectly happy with Konsole, and sleep well despite perhaps missing out on features I don’t know about.

  • @[email protected]
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    24 days ago

    I have determined that foot is best for me personally, like alacritty and a couple others, it is very barebones. No tabs or anything like that without tmux. But it doesn’t rely on GPU acceleration and is just as fast (or faster) than my experience using GPU accelerated terminals. Easy to configure and since it doesn’t have the GPU requirements it works on old hardware like a dream. Only possible issue is that it is wayland only but since that is all I like to use it is perfect.

    I find a lot like ghostty and wezterm try to include too many features. All I need a terminal emulator to be is a terminal emulator. But then a lot of these then add tabs, build in multiplexers & more and it is more bloated than I like a simple utility to be. Additionally, I don’t need native tabs as a lot I do in the terminal uses SSH so it is easier just to use tmux/zilji and not have to manage it as much.

  • @[email protected]
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    165 days ago

    Are you serious? It’s just a window where text is printed. Use what your DE provides. Now I’m mostly on LXQt, so I use QTerminal. With tiling WMs I prefer urxvt because I don’t need builtin window splitting ans tabs. I can’t imagine what other features may I need.

    • priapus
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      3 days ago

      Multiplexing, remote multiplexing, shell integration, SSH integration, image rendering, ligatures, image rendering (mainly for TUI file managers like Yazi), support for font styling, scrollback searching, persistent sessions.

      Many of these might not matter to you, but I use a lot of these features very frequently, especially remote multiplexing which only Kitty and Wezterm do AFAIK.

      I also paricularly like Westerns feature where you can press a keybind and itll show two character flags over all the links and paths currently being displayed, and you type the flag to copy it. Let’s me avoid switching my hand over to my mouse.

      • @[email protected]
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        13 days ago

        Most of what you enumerated is not a terminal emulator job. There is tmux for multiplexing, search and persistent sessions, for instance. And if you want image rendering, what a hell you use TUI for this? GUI programs can also be controlled with keyboard.

        • priapus
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          13 days ago

          Most of what you enumerated is not a terminal emulator job.

          Says who? You aren’t the arbiter of what software gets to handle each job.

          Tmux does a worse job than Wezterm while being more complex, a pain in the ass to configure, and feeling less native than just using the built-in tabs and panes of my terminal. Ive also had it break the output and interfere with the keybinds of many apps. Why the hell should I install and configure an extra tool when Wezterm does what I need perfect?

          And if you want image rendering, what a hell you use TUI for this?

          Because I like using a TUI? I do the large majority of my work in my terminal, so why should I swap out of it to look at a picture when Wezterm does it just fine? More importantly, why do you give a fuck what tools somebody uses if they work for them?

          I dont give a shit about “Unix philosophy”, Wezterm works better for me at all of these tasks than any other options.

          GUI programs can also be controlled with keyboard.

          I have never seen a GUI file manager with the same level of control using a keyboard as the average TUI file manager.

    • Libra00OP
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      15 days ago

      Yeah I have been, I’ve just seen discussion about terminals that do all kinds of fancy shit and I’m wondering if I’m missing out on features by using the default (konsole), though it seems fairly full-featured. shrug

    • flatbield
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      35 days ago

      That was my reaction. Since I use Cinnamon and Gnome I use gnome-terminal.

      The features I like are cut/paste and the open in terminal feature in the file manger. Nice that it looks good in your DE too. What else does one need?

        • @[email protected]
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          45 days ago

          If you’re on a high-refresh display, the GPU acceleration allows for much faster updates. Makes it feel much smoother. It’s of course not needed, but neither is a lot of stuff we do.

            • @[email protected]
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              44 days ago

              What’s up with the attitude like gpu accelerated terminals aren’t extremely popular? If you’re fine with what you’re using, have fun and tone down the high horse.

            • priapus
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              13 days ago

              You can just go test it out yourself. Compare using a TUI in a hardware accelerated terminal to one that isnt. If you use a lot of TUIs or very dynamic CLIs it makes a very noticeable difference

  • Czele
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    195 days ago

    Im using what DE provides by default. If You do not know what You need from terminal that means You probably do not need anything more. Make a switch when You want something particular. On the other note I think You might be more interested in different shell rather than terminal. So fir example zsh or fish (You are most likely currently using bash)

    • @[email protected]
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      13 days ago

      I agree. I think OP should try another shell first. That will impulse the use of the terminal. I’m using alacritty because it stuck and the updates are minuscule, but I’ve recently moved to fish and have it on desktop and server.

  • Quazatron
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    35 days ago

    Terminator is my weapon of choice. Supports tabs, multiple terminals per tab, multiple terminal input and a lot of other neat stuff.

  • @[email protected]
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    25 days ago

    I like minimal terminals, was using st for a long time and now I’m using foot for quite a while already. Since I’m using tmux I don’t need my terminal to have any tab/windowing features

  • @[email protected]
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    95 days ago

    kitty. The ssh kitten is enough reason to use it. I work ob a lot of different systems that require OTP. Using the ssh kitten I can type the OTP once and can spawn new terminals that ssh and cd to the remote direvtory without logging in again. Obviosly the tabs and window panes are are a must too. There’s tons of other useful features that I like, like using hints to select nunbers, filenames, urls, etc in the terminal output.

  • Ramin Honary
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    5 days ago

    I use Xfce and Cinnamon, but I always install Gnome Terminal regardless (you don’t need all of Gnome desktop to use it). The main reason I like Gnome Terminal is that it is very simple, and it lets you save your own terminal themes and switch between them from a context menu. Xfce terminal is nice and simple, but doesn’t have this really handy theme switching feature.

    That said, the terminal emulator I used most often is the Emacs built-in terminal emulator (term-mode), because it integrates flawlessly with other Emacs tools. But its rendering and theming isn’t as nice as Gnome terminal, so I only recommend it if you are an Emacs user.

  • wuphysics87
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    45 days ago

    My suggestion is you focus more on learning to use the terminal than figuring out which one to use. Switching terminals is like a micro version of distro hopping without the benefits.

    I use ollama for llms, but being a terminal tool, you need to be comfortable using the terminal.

    To answer your original question, I use alacritty. Minimal bells and whistles. Just a terminal.

    • Libra00OP
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      15 days ago

      Fair, although I am reasonably comfortable with the terminal (just don’t know all the commands and such, always having to look that sort of thing up). I used to run linux installs many years ago back when stuff like slackware and redhat were the standard distros and X was iffy at best so I’ve done a lot of that sort of thing, just not in like 20+ years.

      But I’m seeing lots of recommendations for alacritty, I’ll check it out, though most people seem to think konsole is fine unless I have specific needs which I really don’t. Thanks!

    • @[email protected]
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      25 days ago

      Uhh, switching terminals is nothing like distro-hopping, that’s a ridiculous analogy. You might need to configure the new terminal, but that’s it, and there’s no cost or conflict.

  • CarrotsHaveEars
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    24 days ago

    It’s not nice to make people read through half of your post to find out your question, sir.

    Moreover, does the result produced by a search engine not be sufficient? Do you genuinely want Lemmy user’s opinions?

    • Libra00OP
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      74 days ago

      That’s why it was right there in the title? What else did you imagine I meant when I titled that post ‘the terminal question’?

      And yes, I genuinely value the opinions of others (because they can explain why they hold them) over the opinions of AI-generated listicles and 10 year old reddit posts that offer no explanation. Is that not why you participate in internet forums like lemmy?

      • CarrotsHaveEars
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        14 days ago

        That’s why it was right there in the title?

        To me it wasn’t. The question would be “What terminals do you guys use?”

        Please blame AI for internet search all you want, but there are ways to filtered AI-generated posts. For example, search on specific sites which you trust (I don’t know, lemmy.ml as the obvious choice, perhaps?).

        • Libra00OP
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          14 days ago

          Did you miss the important part of the comment you’re replying to?

          What else did you imagine I meant when I titled that post ‘the terminal question’?

          Did you think ‘the terminal’ question meant something else, or are you just ignoring the whole thing because you’re dead-set on being an ass?

          • CarrotsHaveEars
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            14 days ago

            Dude, look, I gave you some advise on how to get information from search engines, and efficiently ask a question when that fails to deliver. If you don’t like it, simply walk away. Feel free to block me or downvote me too. Argue with me does you no good.

            • Libra00OP
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              14 days ago

              No, what you did is come into a productive post with a fair amount of serious engagement–and no apparent confusion about what I meant from anyone else–with an attitude and a snarky comment. I tried in my response to ignore that and sincerely engage with your question and you decided to double-down. So I’m gonna take that as a solid ‘yes’ re:dead-set on being an ass and go do something more productive with my time. Have a lovely day.