Forum:Which terminal emulator is the one for you?

Question

[5heikki]

For many of us, the command line is where essentially all our work takes place. As such, choosing the right terminal emulator is important. In the past, I used OS X default terminal (Terminal.app) near exclusively. At some point I tried iTerm, but it just didn't feel right. For the last few months, I've been using GNOME Terminal at work. However, it's missing some features, such as terminal activity/inactivity notifications in tabs. So then I read about Terminator (not the one for which there is a wikipedia page but this one). I have to say that the horizontal/vertical split options it supports are terrific, and no way I ever use a terminal emulator that does not support this feature again. Terminator also does auto logging, which is pretty great when 6 months from now you wonder how that one-liner went. So what is it for you and why? Konsole? Some emulator in EMACS? xterm? There are so many to choose from. Bonus question, what color theme you go for? For me it's always the general green on black..

Answer 1

[Ram]

I use my Mac's Terminal.app, but with different appearance settings for local and HPC connections. Of the many desktops open on my iMac, Terminal.app occupies an always open full-screen application slot.

When I do need multiple tasks on Terminal, I open an additional small Terminal window and treat it as a sub-shell of my thought process. Rarely have I needed multiple tabs (confusing to me) or split screen - maybe I'll try the split screen.

The logging feature seems super useful - Ctrl-R search is not as flexible as, say, grep, and a searchable log would be amazing. I think I'll give iTerm2 a shot - it's the closest Mac equivalent to Terminator.

EDIT: I have now moved to iTerm2, but my usage pattern remains much the same. Instead of multiple windows, I now have background tabs - for HPC connections and running local servers. I guess I am too comfortable with my thought process :)

[Chris Miller]

+1 for different appearance settings. It's super-useful to have different profiles (with different background colors) for different servers vs local shell. Being able to instantly orient yourself takes away some of the cognitive load of task-switching.

[Ram]

Exactly. This got configured because I was running homebrew and git commands on HPC by mistake.

[5heikki]

To be honest, iTerm2 feels right for me now. Definitely going to start using it on my laptop. Split panes are great for lots of stuff..

Answer 2

[Chris Miller]

Whatever terminal you use (for me, it's iTerm2), you should definitely be using mosh (in conjunction with screen or tmux). It gives me the ability to close my laptop, go home, then open it up and have my session there, exactly how I left it. Seriously, it's life-changing.

[Ram]

I'd definitely use that if I had a laptop :)