INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The terminal is the beating heart of Linux, no matter how hard today’s user-friendly graphical distros might try to push it into the
If you need something done quickly and efficiently, chances are the best way to do it is with some complex keyboard wrangling
Exactly what to type is beyond the scope of this article – check out our guide here to get yourself started.The key, if you’re a
terminal-slinging Linux badass, is to make sure you type those commands with as much style and panache as possible
And while you’ll likely never be in a position where you’re not able to drop to a straight full-screen shell, having a quick window to
the command line on your desktop is always handy.Of course, your Linux distribution will have a ‘Terminal’ application already such as
xterm, Gnome Shell or Konsole – but this probably isn’t as good as your emulator could be
Let’s refresh your view of those plain old white-on-black characters, as we explore our top six Linux Terminal emulators.1
Cool Retro TermIf you have a bunch of CPU cycles and graphics processing power that needs using up, you’re sure to get a kick out of Cool
It emulates the look of a really old-school cathode ray monitor, complete with phosphorous glow, burn-in, and bloom around the characters
If you cut your teeth with the monochrome screens of the early eighties, this is a nostalgic (and highly customisable) trip back to the
past.You can even select between a number of character sets, evoking memories of (for example) the all-caps Apple II, as well as selecting
between a number of colours to replicate the amber warmth of classic Zenith monitors, or a rarely-used but nonetheless beautiful cyan.While
the usefulness of some of its features is questionable – particularly the optional screen jitter replicating a slightly dodgy signal
cable, and some of the older fonts – Cool Retro Term (CRT) is a beautiful toy to play with.2
GuakeThis Terminal emulator, crafted specifically for Gnome, takes inspiration from the classic shooter Quake, as its name suggests
Guake doesn’t offer you quad or mega-health power-ups, red armour, or even come branded with Quake’s classic brown-on-brown colour
Instead, it apes the behaviour of Quake’s console, un-hiding itself and dropping down from the top of the screen when you hit a
hotkey.This behaviour is highly useful, particularly when you’re working with a small screen
There’s no need to keep a window open, hunt around for the Terminal icon when you need to type something useful, or check your performance
Just tap [F12] to bring it down, or [F11] to make it full-screen, and you’re away.Guake also comes with a selection of neat colour
schemes, giving you a few stylish options
There are similar options for other desktops, too: check out the likes of YaKuake for KDE or the GTK-based tilda.3
TerminatorHow much street cred does a single Terminal window actually afford you Every command line warrior worth his or her salt is jumping
between a number of different sessions for different tasks, has one eye on htop (or similar) at all times to manage system resources, and so
on.There are actual shell-based options for this – GNU Screen, for example, or tmux – and Gnome Terminal allows you to open extra tabs
But Terminator, which borrows much of its code from Gnome Terminal and tends to update as soon as its parent does, splits up your different
sessions into individual panes within a single Terminal app.This means you can have everything open and available at one time – keep an
eye on stats, watch a text-mode clock like vtclock, edit docs in nano, run whatever commands you need, all from one grid interface which can
be tweaked as your needs require.4
TerminologySome people lean on the Terminal as their default method of Linux navigation, which can be a little restrictive
Normally you’d hunt down a file, then have to jump to a graphical desktop application to preview it, unless it's a plain text document
That isn't the case with EFL-based Terminology, an app which celebrates the Terminal while doing away with its more irritating old-school
features.Files, URLs and email addresses can be automatically previewed in Terminology’s window
Click an image, or a video, and you’ll be shown a preview within the Terminal itself
It supports panes (known as ‘splits’) in much the same way as Terminator, and can be customised
Why not apply an individual background image or colour scheme to each split, or fiddle with the transparency for that late nineties ‘look
what Linux can do’ vibeThe options are all there, with text mode triggers and a vast number of settings tucked away in its context menus.5
st (simple terminal)One of Linux’s big issues is that it sometimes does a bit too much
Your chosen Terminal emulator is probably compatible with a whole raft of obscure, archaic and/or unused commands.This can become very messy
as Linux code tends to pass through a lot of hands before being released
It doesn’t have to be that way, though: st is a simple Terminal emulator that does precisely what it’s meant to do and little
else. Don’t make the mistake of thinking it’s all that simple, though, despite the name (st stands for Simple Terminal)
There’s still support for all the colours you could ask for, clipboard handling, a full UTF-8 character set, and a lot of font
customisation options including antialiasing. If you’re not one for Terminal frippery and would prefer a more straightforward
environment, this is most definitely the one for you.6
rxvt-unicodeAlso known as urxvt, this is the Terminal emulator which many veteran Linux users end up going with
Not because it has pretty graphics or gimmicks, but because it’s absolutely rock solid and free of glitches. That’s not to say it
doesn’t do fancy things: it supports colours, unicode, customisable fonts with italics and bold if required, and even transparency
The main program runs as a daemon, meaning it cleverly conserves system resources when you’re running multiple windows over multiple
desktops.It’s very difficult to cause rxvt-unicode to crash, and that’s its main selling point – even if you’re playing with a more
visual Terminal program, having this installed for when it’s time to get serious is a clever choice
Do note, though, that you may need to edit the hardware configuration file to customise it to your needs.Linux Format is the number one
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