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Oh My Zsh VS GNU Bourne Again SHell

Compare Oh My Zsh VS GNU Bourne Again SHell and see what are their differences

Oh My Zsh logo Oh My Zsh

A delightful community-driven framework for managing your zsh configuration.

GNU Bourne Again SHell logo GNU Bourne Again SHell

Bash is the shell, or command language interpreter, that will appear in the GNU operating system.
  • Oh My Zsh Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-19
  • GNU Bourne Again SHell Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-14

Oh My Zsh features and specs

  • Plugin Ecosystem
    Oh My Zsh offers a wide variety of plugins that extend the functionality of your shell, including git integration, syntax highlighting, and auto-suggestions.
  • Themes
    It provides a rich collection of themes that allow you to customize the look and feel of your terminal, making it visually appealing and easier to use.
  • Community Support
    With a large, active community, users can find a wealth of resources, tutorials, and support for troubleshooting and expanding their Zsh configuration.
  • Ease of Use
    Oh My Zsh simplifies the management of Zsh configurations through a straightforward installation process and easy-to-use commands for adding and removing plugins and themes.
  • Highly Configurable
    Even though it simplifies many aspects of Zsh, Oh My Zsh still allows for deep customization tailored to individual workflow needs.

Possible disadvantages of Oh My Zsh

  • Performance Overheads
    Using Oh My Zsh can slow down shell startup time, especially if many plugins or a complex theme are enabled.
  • Over-reliance on Plugins
    Users may become dependent on Oh My Zsh's extensive plugin system, which could discourage them from learning and understanding native Zsh scripting.
  • Potential for Conflicts
    Adding multiple plugins and custom scripts can lead to conflicts and bugs, making the shell environment unstable or unpredictable.
  • Large Install Size
    The framework with all its plugins and themes can take up a significant amount of disk space, which may be a consideration for users with limited storage.
  • Updates and Maintenance
    Regular updates are necessary to keep the system secure and up-to-date, which can be a hassle for users who prefer a 'set it and forget it' approach.

GNU Bourne Again SHell features and specs

  • Compatibility
    Bash is highly compatible with sh, the original Bourne Shell, making it easy for users familiar with other Unix-like systems to adapt.
  • Scripting Capabilities
    Bash supports a wide range of scripting functionalities, including command substitution, variables, and control structures, making it powerful for complex scripting tasks.
  • Widespread Usage
    Bash is the default shell for many Linux distributions and macOS, ensuring widespread availability and community support.
  • Interactive Use
    Bash offers interactive features such as command line editing, history substitution, and tab completion, enhancing user productivity.
  • Strong Community and Resources
    There is a robust community around Bash, providing a wealth of resources including documentation, tutorials, and forums for support.

Possible disadvantages of GNU Bourne Again SHell

  • Performance Overhead
    When compared to newer shells like Zsh or Fish, Bash can have slower performance due to its older architecture and design.
  • Limited Advanced Features
    Bash lacks some of the advanced features and improvements found in other modern shells, such as better autocomplete functionality and enhanced scripting syntax.
  • Complexity for Beginners
    The robust feature set of Bash can be overwhelming to new users, especially those unfamiliar with command-line interfaces.
  • Error Handling
    Bash scripts can be prone to errors if not carefully handled, as it has limited debugging facilities compared to languages specifically designed for scripting.

Oh My Zsh videos

You Really Don't Need Oh My Zsh And Here's Why (Rant)

More videos:

  • Review - Working with Linux - Terminal, Zsh & Oh My Zsh
  • Review - Uninstall Oh My ZSH Right Now And Do This Instead

GNU Bourne Again SHell videos

No GNU Bourne Again SHell videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Oh My Zsh and GNU Bourne Again SHell)
Developer Tools
88 88%
12% 12
Cryptocurrencies
39 39%
61% 61
Programming
100 100%
0% 0
Blockchain
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Oh My Zsh and GNU Bourne Again SHell

Oh My Zsh Reviews

  1. Stan
    · Founder at SaaSHub ·
    Indispensable

    This has become an indispensable tool for me. One of the first thing to install on a new computer.

    🏁 Competitors: GNU Bourne Again SHell, fish shell

GNU Bourne Again SHell Reviews

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Oh My Zsh seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 74 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Oh My Zsh mentions (74)

  • Installing Terraform
    To start this re-learning journey, I feel like I should start with setting up a VPC on my AWS account. I already have an account so I will not be writing about that. However, since I want to do all of this via IaC, I need to setup Terraform. Luckily for me, this is a new laptop so I have nothing setup on it, besides iTerm2. Btw, I am using https://ohmyz.sh/ for my shell, so shout out to that team. This is what... - Source: dev.to / 14 days ago
  • Bash vs. Zsh: Key differences and when to use each
    Oh My Zsh is an open-source Zsh framework used to add extra functionalities for Zsh, turbocharging the entire Zsh user experience. Oh My Zsh’s extra advanced features cause users who frequently use the terminal to gravitate towards Zsh. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Switching from tmux to Zellij
    That's it! Happy CLI mastery with Zellij, Oh My zsh and Alacritty! - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • The easiest way to set up and configure your AWS CLI
    If you are using Oh My ZSH as your shell of choice, you can add plugins=(... Aws ) to your .zshrc / profile and besides having autocomplete for the AWS CLI you will also immediately see in the terminal window what is the current AWS profile you are logged in. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • My Terminal Setup for 2025 🚀
    ZSH and Oh My ZSH offer superpowers to your terminal thanks to its customization and wide variety of plugins. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
View more

GNU Bourne Again SHell mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of GNU Bourne Again SHell yet. Tracking of GNU Bourne Again SHell recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Oh My Zsh and GNU Bourne Again SHell, you can also consider the following products

Prezto - Prezto is the configuration framework for Zsh; it enriches the command line interface environment...

fish shell - The friendly interactive shell.

Starship (Shell Prompt) - Starship is the minimal, blazing fast, and extremely customizable prompt for any shell! Shows the information you need, while staying sleek and minimal. Quick installation available for Bash, Fish, ZSH, Ion, and Powershell.

zsh - The Z shell (Zsh) is a Unix shell that can be used as an interactive login shell and as a powerful command interpreter for shell scripting.

Antigen - The plugin manager for zsh.

PowerShell Plus - Learn how to learn and master PowerShell fast with an interactive learning center, a powerful IDE, pre-loaded scripts, and a PowerShell Editor… all for free.