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Alacritty, Konsole, or something else? Which terminal emulator do you recommend?

So, Konsole shipped by default with KDE Plasma, my current Desktop Environment. While I don’t have a problem with it, I am interested in what other people are using, because there very likely is something better out there.

Specifically I’ve seen talk of Kitty and Alacritty, although I’ve also read that the dev of Kitty is allegedly kind of a jerk, so I am specifically interested in how Konsole matches up to Alacritty in your experience, but other suggestions and general terminal emulator discussion are also welcome!

Pantherina ,

On Cosmic you can tile multiple windows in tabs. Tabs are essential for me, I tried Alacritty (and it had quite some issues but I got it to work) and switched back to Konsole

graycube ,

I've been using Alacritty (on Wayland) for the past few years. I like it's customizability. My only real complaint is that there are times when I really miss having scrollbars. After reading this thread I'll have to give kitty a try. I think I tried it a couple if years ago and was not impressed, but maybe it has gotten a lot better since then.

graycube ,

Having looked closer, kitty just looks too complicated. I just want a nice terminal. Kitty doesn't have scrollbars either. I'll stick with Alacritty for now.

flubba86 ,

Hey, have a look at Wezterm. I was an Alacritty user for 3 years, but always wanted a scrollbar and tabs. Wezterm is what you are looking for.

azvasKvklenko ,

Kitty - super simple, configurable and lightweight

wallybeavis ,

Also you can export your client list, which is helpful when migrating from machine to machine

WeLoveCastingSpellz ,

konsole is fast and reliableI like it

MonkderZweite ,

xfce4-terminal. Runs fine without xfce4.

BaumGeist ,

TLDR: try them out, see what you like. It’s a relatively easy switch-out, it’s not like you’re debating different web stacks.

I used zutty for awhile. It was fine and lightweight, but broke when I switched back from the nvidia drivers to nouveau (it’s an older laptop that has no reason to milk every last bit of performance out of its gpu).

Now I’m using Alacritty. I like that I can configure it in a .yml file instead of needing to use my mouse, I like that it’s written in Rust, I like that I got it to do transparency within minutes. I love the vi mode.

On my daily driver I use Terminator. I like the multiplexing/tabs/panes, the infinite scrollback when needed, and the logger plugin when needed. I might see if I can get it to do transparency tomorrow.

xterm has always treated me well too. Just a good, solid choice.

I guess my two biggest pieces of advice re: terminal emulators are

  1. use tmux, it’s extremely convenient once you get the hang of it. It’s like any terminal-based text editor: hard to learn, but such a pleasure to use once you’ve got it down. Why waste time moving over to grab your mouse when you could just hit 2-3 keys?
  2. configure the hell out of whatever you pick. It doesn’t feel comfortable, like it’s your command line—in the same way that it’s your bed, or your chair, or your computer—until you’ve configured it. After you do, it just feels comfortable. Change the color scheme to all custom colors, change the font, change the shell, change the sounds, change the cursor blink rate, disable cursor, disable animations, disable text output, enable scrollback, enable logging, enable transparency, enable autopilot, adjust the retro encabulator, fasten your seatbelts, eat your veggies, stay in school.
  3. use transparency. There’s just something so pleasant about something more than a solid color background.
glibg10b ,

Kitty if you have a GPU and run programs that have a lot of output (build scripts and emerge). It uses the GPU for better performance.

Laser ,

kitty is great, for me it’s similar to mpv: it does what it’s supposed to do, no fluff. Just straight up performance.

flashgnash ,

Kitty is great until you SSH into a machine where it’s not installed and try to use tmux or some other commandline apps

Laser ,

If it’s a machine you have control over you can install the terminfo. Or setting the TERM variable to something like xterm-256color when connecting, that usually works, though I haven’t tried with tmux.

flashgnash ,

I usually just change TERM to xterm but I’ve heard that isn’t a good way to do it

Also I’d rather not install stuff on every server I ssh into, I’ve installed it on test servers but wouldn’t want to do it on prod

glibg10b ,

I’ve never had issues with TERM=xterm

rhys ,
@rhys@rhys.wtf avatar

@flashgnash @Laser Connecting once with its ssh kitten resolves this by uploading appropriate terminfo files to the user's directory.

flashgnash ,

I didn’t realise it was only once you had to use it

rhys ,
@rhys@rhys.wtf avatar

@flashgnash Yep, just once to transfer the terminfo files and resolve this.

The SSH kitten is pretty useful though. If you use it in combination with kitty's --single-instance mode, you can start new kitty windows in the same SSH session without logging in again using its shared connection feature. Hugely convenient for how I work at least.

flashgnash ,

I have used it for that feature before, is there not a concern around defense in depth there though? If you’ve got a rogue program running could it not then hijack your ssh connection and infect that machine as well?

Steamymoomilk ,

Tillix with zellji is golden

dino ,

Isn’t that overkill?

gkpy ,

since you seem to consider alacritty, which is pretty minimal in features, maybe give foot a shot as well. i find it fits best into tiling wm land (sway, river, etc.) so might not be your cup of tea…

nayminlwin ,

Been using foot for like 5 years now. It just gels so damn well with tiling wms and super fast.

dino ,

what does it better than any other terminal for twms?

nayminlwin ,

It does pretty much nothing in terms of fancy windowing and layout features. No tab interface, split screens, etc. I let those handled by my TWM and it just starts really fast.

BaumGeist ,

I use i3 and don’t have a mouse. Rn I’m using Alacritty because I want to keep things minimal. Is foot a good fit for my usecase?

gkpy ,

not sure for i3, i think foot is wayland-only. but i have the same setup with sway and am very happy

DeuxChevaux ,
@DeuxChevaux@lemmy.world avatar

I have been using Terminator for years now, because you can easily slice and dice the window into several terminals, and it is reasonably configurable. But then, as I am completely happy with it, I never ventured out to find an even better one, so YMMV.

UmbraTemporis ,

Wherever possible I use the XFCE defaults, as I basically turn Budgie into XFCE. So I use the XFCE-Terminal, and it’s probably the most comfortable TE I’ve tried.

acockworkorange ,

I don’t get the fixation people have with terminals. I don’t think I’ve ever used one in Linux that made me think “you know, I need to install a better terminal emulator”. So I just use what comes with my DE.

CatLikeLemming OP ,
@CatLikeLemming@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

I am on EndeavourOS and install packages via the command line and on top of that I primarily use Neovim, so I spend a decent amount of time in the terminal

Yearly1845 ,

deleted_by_author

    •
    CatLikeLemming OP , (edited )
    @CatLikeLemming@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

    Understandable and fair. I enjoy trying different stuff though. I’m not saying other people need to switch to another terminal emulator, I’m just here to ask what everyone else is using and then try it out myself, for fun :3

    Edit: To add onto that, if I didn’t wanna try new stuff, I’d still be on Windows. I never had any major problems with it until I discovered the things Linux does better, and so if I just went with what seems fine I’d still be using Windows now. There’s not an inherent problem with that, of course, but overall the switch has benefited me. I like trying new things, you know?

    acockworkorange ,

    I get that, but even when I worked as a coder using vim I didn’t care. What makes, let’s say, Gnome terminal a bad terminal?

    BaumGeist ,

    My counterpoint is terminator. The logger plugin saved my ass a few times, it remembers the commands I ran and what their output was so I don’t have to.

    I guess it depends on if you’re willing to take advantage of the extra features, or just want to do as little CLI as possible

    acockworkorange ,

    Nowadays I don’t use the CLI much. But back in the day I used vim professionally and still didn’t care. Maybe because I ran everything from within vim?

    priapus ,

    I like customizing mine and switch DEs often, and use multiple across different devices. It’s easier to find one good terminal that can share a config and work well on each device and DE.

    RecallMadness ,

    Providing it has tabs, I’ll use it.

    azertyfun ,

    There are two kinds of powerusers, and they DO NOT understand each other one bit.

    The first, like you, just wants to get shit done and want to avoid the friction of choosing/installing/configuring their tools. GNOME, Chromium, and VSCode will do just fine.

    The second, like me, wants to get shit done as well, but has a strong need for a very specific workflow. I’ll spend half an hour to get a toolchain working on nvim instead of using a pre-baked VSCode plugin. Not because VSCode is bad, but because I have a very (!) specific workflow and associated muscle memory and anything else distracts and unsettles me.

    Some of the best engineers I know fall into either category, neither way is superior it’s just how brains are wired.

    Anyway I use Kitty because it allows me to split tabs into windows (not windows into tabs! ew!), has low latency with high throughput thanks to GPU rendering, and a low memory footprint.

    acockworkorange ,

    Oh that made a ton of sense! I don’t customize as much because I’m a completionist and would waste a whole week on it and not even change much from defaults anyway.

    I also checked kitty and terminator and I can see the appeal. I’m used to opening separate windows and tile them using window manager commands to get a similar effect.

    Thanks for your response, that was an eye opener!

    resposibleaccount ,

    I have been using apps.kde.org/yakuake/ for years. Having the command line available with a simple key combo while not cluttering up any task manager is great.

    displaced_city_mouse ,

    Me too - I’ll use Konsole if I need to have the results up all the time, but Yakuake is my main terminal.

    anarchist ,
    @anarchist@lemmy.ml avatar

    If you can’t give evidence, it’s not nice to spread rumours

    thesmokingman ,

    I’ve been using Terminator for years primarily because it’s portable. It predates a lot of the portable terminals in vogue right now. I haven’t really noticed a difference in using any of the newer ones so I haven’t switched. There’s some endowment effect there and sunk cost dotfiles.

    If there’s a good comparison someone knows about that I should scope to understand what I’m missing I’m always curious!

    offspec ,

    I also exclusively use terminator, I just wish it had ligatures

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