5 Linux Terminal Apps That Are Better Than The Default Ones

When I was first getting into Linux, the terminal was a necessity. Now, graphical user interfaces are so advanced, easy to use, and powerful that you could spend your entire Linux career without ever touching a terminal window.

But when you need to dig deeper into those commands, you’ll need a terminal app that’s better than the default one your distribution probably uses.

Fortunately, there are plenty of options, and here are my five favorites (all of which are free and can be installed from your distribution’s default repositories).

Also: 10 Things I Always Do Immediately After Installing Linux (And Why)

1. Guake

Guake is great. It’s a drop-down terminal client that, when you press F12 on your keyboard, will drop down from the top of your screen. When you’re done, press F12 again and it will hide away until you need it again. Guake is also very configurable. You can adjust startup and tabs, the main window, the shell, scrolling, appearance, keyboard shortcuts, quick launch, hooks, and compatibility.

Guake includes transparency, themes, shell selection, and much more. What I really like about Guake is that it’s always ready. Just press the keyboard shortcut and it’s there. Instead of having to add another icon to your favorites (or desktop), keep it clean while still maintaining easy access to your terminal app.

2. Deformation

Warp is your terminal app on steroids. The big draw of Warp is that it includes a built-in AI that can be used to help you learn commands or even answer questions about the programming language you are trying to learn. One really cool feature found in Warp is that you can ask it questions to figure out the command you need to run.

Also: The First 5 Linux Commands Every New User Should Learn

For example, let’s say you want to list the contents of your home directory with a long list and show hidden files. Instead of having to remember ls -la ~/you could write, show what’s in ~/The incorporation of natural language makes it easier to learn the commands needed to use Linux. Warp covered by itselfso you can check out the full review and see how amazing this app is.

3. Kitten

I’m not talking about the PUSA song, but about the Linux terminal application. At first glance, you might think that Kitty is just a simple terminal application, but it has a few tricks up its sleeve. For example, Kitty includes split panes that allow you to split the terminal window into multiple panes (either vertically or horizontally). To split the panes, press Ctrl+Shift+Enter on your keyboard and the terminal will split into two vertical panes. Press the combination again and it will split the focused vertical pane into two horizontal panes.

Also: 5 Reasons Why Linux Will Overtake Windows and MacOS on the Desktop, Eventually

Kitty also includes several useful features, such as the ability to edit remote files locally. This is tricky to do, but once you get the hang of it, it’s easy. To do this, you need to use Kitty’s file editing feature. Kittens Plugin feature, which includes an SSH plugin. Remotely access your machine with the help of ssh kitten as follows:

kitty +kitten ssh user@server

Where user is the username on the remote server and server is the IP address of the remote server. Once logged in, run the following command:

Now, press Ctrl+Shift and click on the file you want to edit. You will be asked if you want to edit, open or save the file.

It’s complicated, but it’s a really cool feature to use.

4. Terminator

Terminator is another terminal application that can perform horizontal and vertical splitting. You can also assign custom titles to each terminal window, so you never confuse one with another. This is a great feature when using one terminal for administrative tasks (e.g. on a remote machine) and another terminal for local tasks. Those panels can be dragged and dropped into any order. Terminator also supports customizable profiles, color schemes, font settings, and keyboard shortcuts.

5. Eterm

Eterm is a holdover from my Enlightenment days. This terminal window app is pretty basic, but it offers background images, transparency, brightness/contrast/gamma controls, and much more. The only thing to keep in mind with Eterm is that it was designed for the Enlightenment desktop, so your experience with the features that actually work may vary depending on the desktop environment you use. Also, the menu in the app window will look a little out of place because it conforms to the way Enlightenment looks and works. Still, it’s a fun terminal app, if only for the background image feature.

And there you have it, five terminal apps that you’ll probably enjoy more than the default ones on your favorite Linux distribution.