xterm vs gnome-terminal - which do you prefer?

[dmjones500]

To those of you using xterm and/or gnome-terminal: which one do you prefer and why? Is one faster than the other, or "better" in some way?

I use xterm, and i'm not really sure why!

[kerry_s]

xterm, but if i'm using debian unstable, i like roxterm.

You can't go wrong with xterm it's in every linux distro, you'll always know how to use it.

[mcduck]

Gnome-terminal. It just looks best. And while it's a bit slower than some lighter terminals, in the end the difference is so small it doesn't really matter.

I just can't see any reason to use any other terminal. :D

[bluenova]

Konsole for me.

[miggols99]

Yakuake. Just like Konsole but pops up from the top :)

[eentonig]

tilda

and gnome-terminal

[davtaine]

Yakuake

[insane_alien]

i've used both gnome-terminal and xterm. the only difference i can see is that you can scroll up in gnome terminal. this is useful sometimes. i prefer gnome-terminal.

[visions97]

Yakuake and Konsole. Konsole in KDE4 is really awesome, not only featureful but they organize the options menu sanely at last.

[jseiser]

urxvt, its lighter and supports and can go transparent.

[AlexenderReez]

of course gnome terminal..because we can customize the profile.....

[fuscia]

i like xfce4-terminal the best.

[EndPerform]

Yakuake here as well. It stays out of the way until I need it, and it's nice and configurable. Second place for me would be rxvt-unicode. Small, lightweight and it gets the job done

[notwen]

i use gnome terminal, but if i know i'm in for alot of CLI i'll use xfce-term, gotta love the tabs. =]

[3rdalbum]

Test:

1. Drag a file to xterm.

2. Drag a file to gnome-terminal.

Guess which one is better?

[tbroderick]

urxvt

[juxtaposed]

XTerm doesn't have copy and paste, gnome-terminal is too slow.

I use xfce4-terminal.

[masinick]

I've probably used 'em all at one time or another. xterm was, of course, the first one that I used. After that, several proprietary xterm spin offs were used (these were in the days of UNIX workstations before I got into using Linux software).

I've used rxvt, which I consider an improvement over xterm. I've used multi-gnome-terminal in the past, which I liked for its easy interaction with tabs. Gnome-terminal seems to now have those features, and has had them for some time. I have used it, both in older and newer versions.

I use the XFCE and KDE desktops the most. As a result, I probably use xfce4-terminal and Konsole the most. However, over the past several months I have become fond of Roxterm. I like the accelerator defaults for Cut, Copy, and Paste in Roxterm better than those in the KDE 3 implementation of Konsole, though the KDE 4 implementation seems to pick up the same defaults that I am interested in as those in Roxterm.

Toss up for me between the XFCE Terminal and Roxterm. I can use 'em all, but I tend to prefer these two.

[Polygon]

im running a 7 going on 8 year old computer here, and i use gnome-terminal with transparancy effects just fine and its not slow in the slightest. so unless your running like a 400 mhz computer....

i don't really care about the terminal, as long as it works

[joninkrakow]

Well, let's see.... I started off using xterm on the MacOS (under X11), but eventually moved to Konsole when I got KDE running under X11, which is kind of my favorite (like the tabs and profiles), but right now, I'm in Gnome, so use gnome-terminal. I can't say I prefer it, but it's what's there in the menu, and what comes up when I type "term" in GnomeDo.... I guess I'm agnostic.

-Jon

[FuturePilot]

Gnome-terminal. It's got a ton of options and I like options :D

[conundrumx]

gnome-terminal. Have used aterm, mrxvt and xterm.

[OutOfReach]

xterm. Because, I realize that gnome-terminal is a little too bloated for my liking.

[crimesaucer]

i like xfce4-terminal the best.

+1 for xfce4 Terminal (voted other)

[RiceMonster]

I also like xfce-terminal.

[olejorgen]

urxvt

[doorknob60]

Konsole, it's like as good as gnome-terminal but it's KDE, so yeah :-P I use xterm on my craptop though (I have Debian Lenny with Xfce on it)

[Le-Froid]

I prefer Konsole

[cardinals_fan]

+1 for xfce4 terminal (voted other)
+2

[macogw]

Terminator (http://launchpad.net/terminator)!

[bfc]

Just starting using RoxTerm, really liking it a lot

[fwojciec]

urxvt

[snova]

I love Yakuake. I probably use it more than any other application, without even realizing it.

Thus, my vote is for Konsole. It's been vastly improved menu-wise in KDE 4, though I don't use it yet.

[bexamous]

konsole from kde4 is the best.

I *HATE* gnome-terminal. It is ungodly slow for some reason. Fullscreen (1920x1200) it is the slowest thing ever at scrolling. Like it totally distracts me from whatever I'm doing.

This is bugging me so much I just came on forum to see if other people complain about this.

Super scientific test:

time cat longfile ... about like 19000 lines.

gnome-terminal = 2m51.628s
xterm = 0m10.783s
konsole = 0m1.609s
urxvt = 0m1.587s

Seriously what looks wrong here? gnome-terminal is a piece of poo.

[Naiki Muliaina]

Another for XFCE4-Terminal ^^

[Scruffynerf]

Voted Other

Terminator. Allows split screening on the fly

[billgoldberg]

Konsole in kde4 is really good.

Xterm, well it's good, but not special.

Gnome terminal I use the most and is good.

I'll test some of the terminals some mentioned here later.

[.Maleficus.]

xfce4-terminal for me. Tabs, transparency, color picker. what more could you need?

[itreius]

xterm :P

[jomiolto]

urxvt. It is light, customizable and blindingly fast when compared to gnome-terminal.

[hessiess]

Currently im using the XFCE terminal in DWM.

[Giant Speck]

Good ol' gnome-terminal here.

[odda]

Yakuake and sometimes konsole

[InfinityCircuit]

Ridiculous question. urxvt is better than xterm in every way.

First thing on every new system is to make urxvtcd the default (choosing regular urxvt is just ignorant)

[will1911a1]

urxvt.

[RiceMonster]

xfce-terminal

[bgs100]

gnome-terminal.
Upon reading this, I tested roxterm.
I liked it, but it was pretty much the same as gnome-terminal
I did speed tests with time cat [large file], and they were always very close. So, its stll gnome-terminal for me right now. Might try urxvt

[avaralom]

I use both on a regular basis, but I like xterm better. Mainly for the default font, really. gnome-terminal doesn't look as nice in that regards.

Maybe I'll try some of the other options here at some point.

[linuxuser21]

I prefer the Gnome-terminal; however, I use Xterm occasionally.

[Yashiro]

The problem is not that other terminals are 'worse' it's just they're more of a pain to configure. Most people just use the default term of their desktop environment.

Unfortunately gnome-term is slow if you use terminals alot. Gnome-terminals slowdown must be related to the default font and anti-aliasing support?

[dbbolton]

I use xfce4-terminal, even when I'm not using Xfce. I just can't live without copy and paste :lol:

[Warpnow]

i like xfce4-terminal the best.

Me, too.

[adamlau]

urxvtc/urxvtd here. GNOME Terminal? C'mon now...

[Eisenwinter]

I normally use Terminator for everything (IRC, commands for output, perl scripts, etc), since it also has mouse support (copy-paste, etc), and I use xterm for minor things which don't require a mouse.

[gypsumwolf]

Mostly i use Terminator. It is has tabs and ability to split the window. Although it is slower then xterm for me.

[shiva.n]

Tilda and Terminator. Most of my things get done in Tilda. Only use Terminator if I have to scroll back to read multi page output, or for programming tasks.

[MethinX]

Guake Terminal, opens via tilde and supports multiple tabing, Transparency and has scroll effect , can also change tab locations


also Terminator Terminal, can split terminals side by side or top and bottom so you can run in one window, makes better use if trying to debug multiple programs or even to copy and paste between terminals

[Bachstelze]

Konsole, but gnome-terminal if I'm not running KDE.

[chessnerd]

I like the gnome-terminal better because it has a white background and the fact that the text is larger (both of which makes it easier on the eyes). However, I considered using xterm because it opens instantly as opposed to a few seconds for gnome-terminal and it was my default when using Xubuntu (as opposed to the xfce terminal).

[orlox]

I prefer terminator. Splitting the windows is usually much more useful than tabbing it.

[ve4cib]

Generally I use Gnome-Terminal (since I use Gnome most of the time and I'm generally too lazy to change the default terminal unless I've got a good reason to). My only complaint about Gnome-Terminal is that it can take a long time to start (sometimes upwards of 20 seconds). Usually it's much faster than that though. And it supports theming, and all the usual Gnome-tie-ins so that it looks pretty and at home on my desktop.

Whenever I'm using a low-memory system (i.e. a thumbdrive-installation, or netbook with minimal storage) aterm is my terminal of choice. It's heavier than xterm, but it has a scrollbar and responds to wheel-mice better in my experience. It also looks pretty sharp when used with Fluxbox and the standard Nyz skin.

Finally my third-choice is the good old ctrl-alt-Fx tty. Sometimes you just need to go back to basics... (Like when you've botched reconfiguring Xorg and need to fix it. Oh, the number of times tty1 + nano + w3m have saved me from myself and Nvidia...)

[starcannon]

gnome-terminal; I have more than enough horsepower to run it, so the speed issue is not an issue for me.

[Mateo]

gnome-terminal, it has more features.

[l-x-l]

Terminator!!!

[Exodist]

To those of you using xterm and/or gnome-terminal: which one do you prefer and why? Is one faster than the other, or "better" in some way?

I use xterm, and i'm not really sure why!

Gnome Term.
Its simple, fast and easy to customize.


I used to use XTerm but that was back when I used Windowmaker.

[Sublime Porte]

mrxvt

Everything [insert your favourite]-terminal can do, with a much smaller footprint.

[Bodsda]

Gnome-terminal.
I just can't see any reason to use any other terminal. :D

Because the gnome-terminal can't be (afaik, I have tried many times) stripped of all its borders and decoration for use as a transparent terminal like the one I have attached

[maximo1010]

Test:

1. Drag a file to xterm.

2. Drag a file to gnome-terminal.

Guess which one is better?

Dude, xterm is for stuff that automatically runs or such (VBox guest additions for example) and gnome-terminal for general terminal work. Overall, gnome-terminal is better, but xterm does this one thing that gnome-terminal can't do. And that's file recognition, meaning that gnome-terminal just leaves us with a dollar sign when you feed it some shell script. You know, both are good. Also, I use xterm for quick terminal work because it just easier to throw into an Alt+F2 dialog.

[3Miro]

Run everyone, there is a Necromancer on the loose!:shock:

[Softworn]

I only use gnome-terminal because of the copy & paste features; otherwise, I'd just use xterm. I prefer the lighter terminal, but copying and pasting saves a lot of time.

[Dustin2128]

Hm, this thread has been pretty heavily necromanced... ah well. Since xterm is installed on every linux GUI system I've ever seen, I use it when more featured ones aren't available or when resource usage is a major problem.

[zer010]

Wow, I didn't think this thread was still active! I just happened upon it through various links.

Anyways, I've usually used gnome-terminal, but ever since I switched to Xubuntu, the xfce-terminal has been pretty good. Almost like g-t, but little differences here and there.

[jarfish]

Gnome but I never used xterm