Terminals to increase your productivity
Fish Shell (MacOS, Linux, BSD, Windows Subsystem for Linux)
Fish is one of my favorite terminals due to its cross-platform capabilities, its auto-complete feature, its humorous and thorough documentation, and modern approach to the command line. It is frequently updated every year and its current stable release is 3.5.1 (July 20th, 2022) as of writing.
To try it without installing, try using the Fish Shell Playground!
Git Bash (MacOS, Linux, BSD, Windows)
I use Git Bash the most professionally than any other on this list. It is a Unix-based shell experience that emulates the Git command line. Linux and MacOS users might be used to Unix-based command line features, where the Windows command line prompt simply does not offer the same utilities. While the documentation is a little skinny, it is so widely used that you should be able to locate tutorials on YouTube (or elsewhere) with ease.
Terminator (Linux, BSD)
Every Linux distro that I have customized includes this terminal emulator. It is customizable, well-documented, open source, and can open many terminals at once in a single window. You can change the key bindings, fonts, opacity or background image, align horizontally or vertically, open multiple tabs, and broadcast command inputs to another window. This is a solid go-to for any Linux user as it works for nearly all distros.
Fig (MacOS, waitlist for Linux and Windows)
Fig has extensive documentation and a positive outlook for cross-platform support. It has auto-complete in the form of a dropdown, making it easier to input calls to other various files, complete your lines, and ultimately save you time at your desk. You can customize key bindings, apply themes, and integrates with nearly any existing terminal you may have. Fig currently supports over 400+ CLI tools with more being added daily.
Hyper (MacOS, Linux, Windows)
Hyper is an Electron-based terminal with new plugins being released every day. In the newest version, Hyper 3, the speed of the terminal itself has been greatly increased. This performance-based update improved start up times, batching, and more. Since Hyper 2, themes have also been rolling out more frequently to create an experience unique to your tastes. Did I mention there’s emoji support?
Kitty (MacOS, Linux, BSD)
This terminal offloads rendering to the GPU for reduced system load and uses threaded rendering. What does that mean? It’s really, really fast too. Kitty also offers multiple layouts, similarly to Terminator, and supports emojis, graphics, and hyperlinks with configurable actions. Need to extend it? You can use kittens for advanced features. It was made by a single developer, Kovid Goyal, whose aim is to innovate in an otherwise stagnant terminal ecosystem.
What’s your favorite terminal? Let me know at ai_alchemist@tuta.io!
