# \[POLL\] What Terminal Do You Use? (Linux) **URL:** \ **Category:** Operating Systems, Editors, and Tools\ **Tags:** command-line, gnu, linux\ **Created:** [January 11, 2021, 8:27pm UTC](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/t/poll-what-terminal-do-you-use-linux/2541 "2021-01-11T20:27:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Josh](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/user_avatar/forum.codeselfstudy.com/josh/32/4_2.png) [@Josh](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/u/Josh)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2021, 8:27pm UTC](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/t/poll-what-terminal-do-you-use-linux/2541/1 "2021-01-11T20:27:54Z")
I’m curious what terminal emulators people like. I use gnome-terminal (with tmux and i3) and it works for me — are there any reasons to investigate switching to a different one? _Poll ([view on site](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/t/poll-what-terminal-do-you-use-linux/2541/1))_ ---
**Author:** ![Josh](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/user_avatar/forum.codeselfstudy.com/josh/32/4_2.png) [@Josh](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/u/Josh)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2021, 8:28pm UTC](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/t/poll-what-terminal-do-you-use-linux/2541/2 "2021-01-11T20:28:10Z")
I started thinking about it today after skimming this post on xterm: [https://aduros.com/blog/xterm-its-better-than-you-thought/](https://aduros.com/blog/xterm-its-better-than-you-thought/) ---
**Author:** ![flcpge](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/user_avatar/forum.codeselfstudy.com/flcpge/32/653_2.png) [@flcpge](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/u/flcpge)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2021, 11:16pm UTC](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/t/poll-what-terminal-do-you-use-linux/2541/3 "2021-01-11T23:16:08Z")
I don’t have a main terminal as I experiment. I’ve used xterm, xfce4-terminal, urxvt, and a little bit of either termite or terminology. In the past I used lxterminal and gnome-terminal. You should list Alacritty. It’s hardware accelerated and fast. It’s written in Rust. ---
**Author:** ![Josh](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/user_avatar/forum.codeselfstudy.com/josh/32/4_2.png) [@Josh](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/u/Josh)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 12:33am UTC](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/t/poll-what-terminal-do-you-use-linux/2541/4 "2021-01-12T00:33:38Z")
> [@flcpge](#): > > Alacritty That looks interesting. I don’t think I can edit the poll after people start voting without losing data, but I’m installing it now to see what it’s like. > [@flcpge](#): > > urxvt I’ve installed urxvt a couple of times and tried to configure it, but I got pulled away by other things before I could see if it had any advantages to gnome-terminal. ---
**Author:** ![PaulH](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/e495f1/32.png) [@PaulH](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/u/PaulH)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 12:35am UTC](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/t/poll-what-terminal-do-you-use-linux/2541/5 "2021-01-12T00:35:45Z")
I didn’t realize I was using an emulator till now. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Josh](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/user_avatar/forum.codeselfstudy.com/josh/32/4_2.png) [@Josh](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/u/Josh)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 12:56am UTC](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/t/poll-what-terminal-do-you-use-linux/2541/6 "2021-01-12T00:56:00Z")
> [@flcpge](#): > > Alacritty It looks good so far. I like the default theme. I’ll try it for a while. One thing I like about gnome terminal is that it’s easy to switch between multiple themes. I usually have many terminals open at once, so the themes help me see which project or server I’m working on in that terminal. > [@PaulH](#): > > emulator I think “terminal” originally referred to [hardware devices](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_terminal). Software terminals emulate those devices. I don’t think it matters, so I just removed the word “emulator” from the title. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![flcpge](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/user_avatar/forum.codeselfstudy.com/flcpge/32/653_2.png) [@flcpge](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/u/flcpge)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 12:58am UTC](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/t/poll-what-terminal-do-you-use-linux/2541/7 "2021-01-12T00:58:44Z")
The only fault I can find with Alacritty is a lack of tabs feature. But I think you use tmux for that. ---
**Author:** ![Josh](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/user_avatar/forum.codeselfstudy.com/josh/32/4_2.png) [@Josh](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/u/Josh)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 1:03am UTC](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/t/poll-what-terminal-do-you-use-linux/2541/8 "2021-01-12T01:03:13Z")
I used tabs until I discovered tmux. I found this, but I’m still figuring out how the configuration works. It put the settings somewhere other than `~/.alacritty.yaml`. 🤔 **Edit:** it created one in `~/.config/alacritty/alacritty.yml`. > **[HOW TO: Easily Apply and Change Alacritty Themes](https://www.funkyspacemonkey.com/how-to-change-alacritty-themes-easily-using-alacritty-themes-cli-tool)** > > Quickly apply and switch between Alacritty terminal themes using the alacritty-themes CLI tool. Step-by-step guide ---
**Author:** ![Josh](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/user_avatar/forum.codeselfstudy.com/josh/32/4_2.png) [@Josh](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/u/Josh)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 1:20am UTC](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/t/poll-what-terminal-do-you-use-linux/2541/9 "2021-01-12T01:20:14Z")
I put this in my i3 config file so I can open alacritty with alt+enter and gnome-terminal with alt+shift+enter. ```auto bindsym $mod+Return exec alacritty bindsym $mod+Shift+Return exec gnome-terminal ``` I like the nostalgic look of green on black (my default gnome terminal) so I don’t think I want to give it up completely. 🙂 ![](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/uploads/default/original/2X/0/0a840f428b47f7e5687f20d3ce402168f5d66748.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![PaulH](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/e495f1/32.png) [@PaulH](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/u/PaulH)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 2:13am UTC](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/t/poll-what-terminal-do-you-use-linux/2541/10 "2021-01-12T02:13:08Z")
I kind of miss the old terminal machines now too. 😃 I understand about the emulator. I guess there is better machine code than before? Something like that. ---
**Author:** ![evante](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/ed8c4c/32.png) [@evante](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/u/evante)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 2:19am UTC](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/t/poll-what-terminal-do-you-use-linux/2541/11 "2021-01-12T02:19:44Z")
I use kitty because of the support for ligatures: [kitty - the fast, featureful, GPU based terminal emulator — kitty 0.19.3 documentation](https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/) ---
**Author:** ![Josh](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/user_avatar/forum.codeselfstudy.com/josh/32/4_2.png) [@Josh](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/u/Josh)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 4:14am UTC](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/t/poll-what-terminal-do-you-use-linux/2541/12 "2021-01-12T04:14:49Z")
I installed it and bound it to Alt+Ctrl+Shift+Enter to experiment with. It’s pretty interesting so far. Is there a ligature font you like? I’m trying it with Fira Code. ![image](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/uploads/default/original/2X/a/adfd2ad638fc7d24ec5dae5dca84d42c39193826.png) I like the [kittens](https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/#kittens) feature. It looks like you can add new features using Python. ![Arabian sand cat](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/uploads/default/original/2X/c/c6d9b9cc88b5d6879ffe1d5e245511a87565ed24.jpeg) `icat` doesn’t seem to work in tmux, but it looks like it has its own system for doing the same kind of window splitting. If anyone else tries it, this themes repo was useful: > **[GitHub - dexpota/kitty-themes: A collection of themes for kitty terminal 😻](https://github.com/dexpota/kitty-themes)** > > A collection of themes for kitty terminal 😻 **Edit:** now I see that the ligatures work in other programs like nvim and REPLs too. This looks good. ![ligatures in ghci](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/uploads/default/original/2X/c/c3f7d632cede5a9aed16a47edad325efc77cd2ad.png) ---
**Author:** ![evante](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/ed8c4c/32.png) [@evante](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/u/evante)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 8:31am UTC](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/t/poll-what-terminal-do-you-use-linux/2541/13 "2021-01-12T08:31:22Z")
Yeah, Fira Code supports the most ligatures I want and of the fonts that have them, I think it looks the best. ---
**Author:** ![Josh](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/user_avatar/forum.codeselfstudy.com/josh/32/4_2.png) [@Josh](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/u/Josh)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 8:35am UTC](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/t/poll-what-terminal-do-you-use-linux/2541/14 "2021-01-12T08:35:48Z")
I went through some of the kitty docs and it looks like it has some improvements over gnome-terminal: - does everything that I use tmux for locally - less-awkward keybindings than tmux - scrolls correctly with multiple panes (tmux requires pressing extra keys) - the ligatures look good - [extends with Python](https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/kittens/custom.html) - displays images in the terminal without open a separate imagemagick window I still need to be able to switch colors easily to tell the terminal windows apart, so I’m probably going to use alacritty for that. To change colors in alacritty, you can type `at` and then fuzzy search for a theme name. (In gnome-terminal, you have to click on things, and it seems like kitty doesn’t support reloading the config file while it’s running.) I’m also going to keep gnome-terminal for my music player ([mpv](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/t/how-to-play-music-in-the-terminal-with-mplayer-and-mpv/2315)), because I still like that green look. 🙂 I might change it around later, but this setup has been working for me tonight. ---
**Author:** ![Josh](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/user_avatar/forum.codeselfstudy.com/josh/32/4_2.png) [@Josh](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/u/Josh)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 10:08pm UTC](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/t/poll-what-terminal-do-you-use-linux/2541/15 "2021-01-20T22:08:39Z")
I switched to kitty for my main terminal. One of the best features for me is this optional setting: ```auto focus_follows_mouse yes ``` It focuses on the pane that is under your mouse. My window manager (i3wm) already works like that, so it’s easier to move the mouse than hit shift+ctrl+L. Another good feature is that I can type ```nohighlight $ thunar ``` and it opens the program without locking up the terminal. Before kitty I would have to type the ampersand: ```nohighlight $ thunar & ``` ---
**Author:** ![Josh](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/user_avatar/forum.codeselfstudy.com/josh/32/4_2.png) [@Josh](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/u/Josh)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2021, 12:00am UTC](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/t/poll-what-terminal-do-you-use-linux/2541/16 "2021-09-12T00:00:45Z")
This page is useful (unicode feature in kitty terminal). I was memorizing codes and typing them but you can search by name too. > **[Unicode input](https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/kittens/unicode-input/)** > > You can input unicode characters by name, hex code, recently used and even an editable favorites list. Press ctrl+shift+u to start the unicode input widget, shown below. A screenshot of the unicode... ---
**Author:** ![flcpge](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/user_avatar/forum.codeselfstudy.com/flcpge/32/653_2.png) [@flcpge](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/u/flcpge)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2021, 5:36pm UTC](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/t/poll-what-terminal-do-you-use-linux/2541/17 "2021-09-17T17:36:23Z")
[Wezterm](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/) is like Alacritty, another GPU accelerated terminal written in Rust. It’s like a configured Xterm with tmux, ligatures, and other goodies out of the box. ---
**Author:** ![Josh](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/user_avatar/forum.codeselfstudy.com/josh/32/4_2.png) [@Josh](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/u/Josh)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2021, 7:39pm UTC](https://forum.codeselfstudy.com/t/poll-what-terminal-do-you-use-linux/2541/18 "2021-09-17T19:39:54Z")
That looks interesting.