- cross-posted to:
- linux@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- linux@lemmy.world
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GPU-Accelerated Terminal Emulator
So is Alacritty, Kitty, Wezterm, and even iTerm.
The README’s About section[0] sheds no light on what sets Ghostty apart from the competition, while using vague terms and marketing hyperboles.
[0] https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty?tab=readme-ov-file#about
From the website linked in the post:
- Windows, Tabs, and Splits: Manage multiple terminal windows, each with several tabs and splits. Better yet, it is all rendered via native UI elements.
- GPU-Accelerated Rendering: Employs Metal on macOS and OpenGL on Linux for efficient, high-speed rendering.
- Hundreds of Themes: Swap between light and dark modes automatically, or choose from a vast library of visually appealing themes.
- Ligatures and Grapheme Clustering: Shows ligatures flawlessly, handles multi-codepoint emoji properly, and accurately renders Arabic and Hebrew (in left-to-right mode).
- Kitty Graphics Protocol Support: Let terminal applications display inline images for a richer visual experience.
It also says it’s cross platform (macOS and Linux) and has configurable shortcuts with what they believe are sensible defaults.
Although at least Alacritty already has all of these features (very different “sensible” defaults, though) and is also available on Windows so I’m not sold.
What is the deal with getting gpu acceleration into a terminal emulator of all things? Of all the innovations that we could use, faster drawing of text doesn’t feel like it should be a priority.
That’s what I would have said till I tried using a TUI epub reader. The jankiness of line-level scrolling (rather than pixel-level like in a GUI app) is all but a deal breaker.
I was then most surprised to discover that terminal emulators with this amazing cutting-edge technology (smooth scrolling) do not even exist.
4k 120 fps ?
And HDR
We need to stop this usage of proprietary MS GitHub + Discord in free software. It completely undermines the philosophy.
The rampant use of Discord in FLOSS project is really disheartening. To join yet another Discord channel to receive any kind of support or discussions around the project, is off-putting.
Plus there’s Matrix 2 now so, no excuse
Matrix the protocol & its blockchain-like eventual consistency model is incredibly expensive / wasteful to run since it requires duplicating all data to all servers for the entire history. Matrix uses so much storage & RAM on a machine. Medium-sized servers regularly close their door due to costs—which further pushes users to the de facto centralized hub in Matrix.org (or servers they host for others) which basically has a copy of all metadata on the network (scary since it was originally funded by Israeli Intelligence … so one might assume they still have access to that data). If a system isn’t accessible to a run for groups on a budget, it isn’t radical/revolutionary.
If you don’t care about the centralization or E2EE, IRC/IRCv3 covers all the bases. If you want decentralization with more features, XMPP + OMEMO + MUCs, covers the rest. Neither of these are resource hogs while having over a decade of extra stability. Matrix 2 is just trying throw a rug over the problems of eventual consistency—but under it is a fundamental issue to the protocol.
damn that’s a bummer.
Does Matrix 2 have channels?
That does not solve most of the problems; you still have to join unindexable group chats to receive any amount of support and discussion.
Right, that’s not the tool for the job. Forums boards are still best at retaining information.
But aren’t room contents indexed and accessible from any client ? they aren’t accessible from a web search engine is what I understand
But aren’t room contents indexed and accessible from any client ?
With a Discord account, you can search in a Discord channel for any servers you have access to, as well as any of your private chats. This means you need to sign up with a commercial account and agree to lots of tracking and data selling, it means that information can be withheld by banning someone from a server, and that information could become very inaccessible relying on people screenshotting it and posting it on other places as has happened with information from Discord servers several times.
Yes, I was talking about Matrix
Like, IRC exists and it just as useful to me as discord. Set up a wiki for FAQ’s and documentation.
Having (re)started using IRC recently, I can see it being a good alternative. But more accessible options like Matrix and Discourse are being overlooked.
FAQs*
Indeed.
Finally a gpu accelerated Terminal emulator with tabbing.
Wezterm has tabs.
Is wezterm gpu accelerated?
Yes
Thanks
Alacritty has windows and tabs.
Idk how to activate it (And my distro Cachyos uses a custom alacrity config
I tried it, and it worked well when I worked locally. But I can’t use it to SSH into my server, a lot of things just don’t work.
You can do something like this:
TERM=xterm-256color ssh user@hostYou could also install or copy over the term files or something. I can’t recall. But it’s the same as getting kitty to work which has more information online.
SSHing to machines with bash seems to work fine, but it’s a problem with ones that use fish, for some reason
I can connect with SSH, but I can’t open
nanoorw3mfor example when I’m connected.Sounds like you have an issue with your PATH for the user you’re sshing as. What does ‘/usr/bin/echo $PATH’ output when run via ssh to your server?
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FYI “riced out” is a pretty racist term.
Thanks for the info. Sincerely did not know.
Since the mods deleted my post, I’ll repeat what I wrote, because aside from the unintentional racism, I feel like I made some valid points.
GPU accelerated terminal emulators are already quite popular and if you use alacrity, kitty, or wez, then you already use them. They can help with not only cool effects like smooth scrolling and transparency, but also with massive text files. Handling an 8gb text file is complicated, and using a GPU can help with that.
Ghostty’s selling points are not just the GPU acceleration, since that’s actually fairly standard nowadays. They are: (from their about page)
Ghostty is a terminal emulator that differentiates itself by being fast, feature-rich, and native. While there are many excellent terminal emulators available, they all force you to choose between speed, features, or native UIs. Ghostty provides all three.
I for one am very excited for this terminal and can’t wait to see what kind of development comes out of it!
Yeah, I figured you might not know, sometimes terms just become divorced enough from their original intent that the context isn’t clear. I didn’t think you were a racist at all.
Edit: see below
That’s obviously a backronym? The wikipedia page makes it clear it’s an offensive term.
TIL, thanks for sharing that.
It’s still racist when you make it an acronym. We know the term originally came from a racist term for Asian vehicles.
Thank you 👏
And I thank you, Norah. As an Asian woman, any Linux space can feel pretty unwelcoming sometimes. Most of the time it’s the sexism, but this insistence on saying “ricing” is just another reminder that many in this space enjoy a bit of racism on the side, too.
I don’t usually say anything; I’m personally too afraid of being dragged into an endless “debate”. Perhaps a bit cowardly on my part. So, I appreciate you pointing it out first.
TIL, thanks!
TIL
I thought it meant granular modification as in rice grains.
I’m not against it, but another factor that we should check in a terminal emulator (as a tool where you run everything from) is the system requirements.
I’m using urxvt and that’s so easy on the system, it starts instantly. I can open multiple instances without worrying about the system resources.
I believe it uses X.org’s text rendering. X.org uses OpenGL under the hood. It’s not CPU rendered.
Alacrity felt bulkier when I tried. I will try this too though.
Alacritty felt too slow and was missing settings I wanted (like mousewheel scroll) due to devs being opinionated. Kitty has been fast and flexible for me.
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Yes. But it doesn’t have to replace your default terminal emulator. You can have multiple and use any of them.
What would be the best foss for Android ?
We are reaching autistic levels never seen before
Unless it is trying to actually look cool like “cool retro terminal” or something, I fail to see how the point. I don’t recall ever in the history of my terminal use ever thinking “man, this terminal emulator is so slow!” I mean, really… 120fps 4k terminals. Neat I guess?
That’s not what GPU acceleration is used for.
