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Xfce4 terminal VS Alacritty

Compare Xfce4 terminal VS Alacritty and see what are their differences

Xfce4 terminal logo Xfce4 terminal

Productivity

Alacritty logo Alacritty

Alacritty is a blazing fast, GPU accelerated terminal emulator.
  • Xfce4 terminal Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-27
  • Alacritty
    Image date //
    2024-05-25

Xfce4 terminal features and specs

  • Lightweight
    Xfce4 Terminal is known for being lightweight, making it ideal for systems with limited resources. It uses minimal system resources, which can result in faster performance compared to more feature-heavy terminal emulators.
  • Customizability
    It offers a high degree of customization, allowing users to set themes, fonts, colors, and other appearance-related features to tailor the terminal to their preferences.
  • Tabbed Interface
    Xfce4 Terminal supports tabbed browsing, which enables users to manage multiple terminal sessions within a single window. This reduces desktop clutter and improves workspace management.
  • Compatibility
    As part of the Xfce desktop environment, it integrates well with other Xfce applications, ensuring a consistent and cohesive user experience across the system.
  • Ease of Use
    The terminal is designed to be user-friendly, providing an intuitive interface that is easy to use for both beginners and experienced users.

Possible disadvantages of Xfce4 terminal

  • Limited Advanced Features
    Unlike more feature-rich terminals like GNOME Terminal or Konsole, Xfce4 Terminal might lack some advanced functionalities, such as advanced search features or extensive plugin support.
  • Aesthetic Limitations
    While customizable, the aesthetic options might not be as extensive or modern-looking compared to other terminals optimized for graphical enhancements.
  • Less Frequent Updates
    As part of the Xfce ecosystem, which is known for its slower release cycle, updates and new features might be less frequent compared to terminals associated with larger projects.

Alacritty features and specs

  • Performance
    Alacritty is known for its excellent performance and speed, leveraging GPU acceleration to deliver a faster terminal experience compared to many other terminal emulators.
  • Simplicity
    Alacritty aims to be simple and focuses on providing a straightforward terminal experience without unnecessary features. This makes it easier for users who prefer minimalistic design.
  • Cross-Platform
    Alacritty is cross-platform, supporting various operating systems including Linux, macOS, and Windows, which makes it versatile for users across different environments.
  • Customizable
    Despite its simplicity, Alacritty offers a range of configuration options through a YAML file, allowing users to tweak the terminal to their preferences.
  • Active Development
    The project is actively maintained, ensuring that it receives regular updates, new features, and bug fixes.

Possible disadvantages of Alacritty

  • Lack of Native Tabs and Splits
    Alacritty doesn't natively support tabs or splits, which might be a limitation for users who rely heavily on these features in other terminal emulators.
  • Configuration Complexity
    While the configuration is powerful, it uses a YAML file which might be intimidating for beginners who are not familiar with YAML syntax.
  • Limited Out-of-the-Box Features
    Alacritty's philosophy of simplicity means it lacks some advanced features available in other terminal emulators, such as built-in SSH integration and terminal multiplexing.
  • No GUI for Configuration
    Alacritty does not offer a graphical user interface for configuration, which may be a drawback for users who prefer a more visual approach to setting up their terminal.
  • Potential GPU Compatibility Issues
    Since Alacritty relies on GPU acceleration, some users may encounter compatibility issues or suboptimal performance on specific hardware or driver configurations.

Analysis of Alacritty

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Alacritty is considered a good terminal emulator for those who prioritize speed and efficiency. Its minimalist design and modern features meet the needs of users who demand high performance from their terminal applications.

Why this product is good

  • Alacritty is well-regarded because it is a GPU-accelerated terminal emulator, which makes it extremely fast and efficient. It is also lightweight, open-source, and cross-platform, supporting macOS, Linux, and Windows. The emphasis on simplicity and performance, along with a focus on providing a seamless and snappy user experience, makes it a popular choice among developers and power users.

Recommended for

    Alacritty is recommended for developers, programmers, system administrators, and power users who need a fast and reliable terminal emulator that can handle demanding workloads efficiently. It is particularly suitable for those who appreciate minimalism and prefer customizable environments.

Xfce4 terminal videos

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Alacritty videos

Alacritty vs iTerm vs Terminal vs Hyper

More videos:

  • Tutorial - How to Use and Configure Alacritty (The Best Terminal Emulator)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Xfce4 terminal and Alacritty)
Terminal Tools
25 25%
75% 75
SSH
24 24%
76% 76
Productivity
100 100%
0% 0
Server Management
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 Xfce4 terminal and Alacritty

Xfce4 terminal Reviews

The 10 Best Linux Terminal Emulators
The list is by no means exhaustive in any way. There are many Linux terminal emulators with dedicated following and users. Other terminal emulators that could have easily made it into my list include; xfce4-terminal, PuTTY, Tilda, or Yakuake. The default terminal emulator in Linux distros is always good enough for many users. Nailing down a favorite emulator requires you to...

Alacritty Reviews

MobaXterm for Mac: Best Alternatives to MobaXterm for Mac
Alacritty includes some important features and blazing speed to give best performance as a terminal app. It comes with proper default settings, The Alacritty does not require additional setup. You can start using Alacritty right after installation on your Mac.
The 10 Best Linux Terminal Emulators
Alacritty can be considered by some a new kid in the block because of its “beta” phase status. Some features that might be of interest are the ability to click through a URL using a keyboard, perform a search, and copy text to the clipboard. You can also try the Vi search, and search functionality allows you to find anything in the Alacritty scrollback buffer. You can also...
Top 14 Terminal Emulators for Linux (With Extra Features or Amazing Looks)
Alacritty can be installed using package managers says the official GitHub page, but I couldn’t find it in the default repository or synaptic package manager on Linux Mint 20.1.
Source: itsfoss.com
Top 7 Best Linux Terminals
You should be able to find Alacritty in your distribution’s repositories, but you can also download Precompiled binaries from Alacritty’s GitHub releases page. Apart from Linux, Alacritty also runs on Windows, macOS, and *BSD.
Source: linuxhint.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Alacritty seems to be a lot more popular than Xfce4 terminal. While we know about 60 links to Alacritty, we've tracked only 1 mention of Xfce4 terminal. 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.

Xfce4 terminal mentions (1)

  • Guide to terminal colors?
    Googling a bit about xfce4-terminal you can find this where it mentions that it is based on VTE project. Then, I searched about its color palette and found this. Source: almost 4 years ago

Alacritty mentions (60)

  • Building Debian packages from source in bootstrapped Debian
    Terminal emulator Alacritty, for instance. The version in the Debian Stable repo is dated— Alacritty of this version uses a .yml config file, but newer versions have switched to .toml. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Switching from tmux to Zellij
    That's it! Happy CLI mastery with Zellij, Oh My zsh and Alacritty! - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Preview images, videos, fonts, PDFs ... in Vifm.
    The terminal I am currently using is st but I have also tested this "Vifm" enhancement in kitty and alacritty. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • Faking the tmux experience on Windows using AutoHotkey
    I chose Alacritty for this. Why? Because it's written in Rust. Is there any other reason? It also has a pretty simple and has an easy to understand settings page and uses TOML. It also has built in support for vi motions. All wins. It's pretty easy to install as well, just follow the link above. I went with the portable version. Just make sure you note where it is going to look for the configuration files. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
  • I Just Wanted Emacs to Look Nice – Using 24-Bit Color in Terminals
    IME, this is like the golden age of terminal apps in general and macOS-compatible ones in particular. There are several really good terminals for macOS: [iTerm2 app](https://iterm2.com/) [Kitty terminal](https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/) [WezTerm terminal](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/index.html) [Alacritty](https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty) -... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Xfce4 terminal and Alacritty, you can also consider the following products

tilda terminal emulator - Tilda is a GTK+ terminal emulator.

wezterm - GPU-accelerated cross-platform terminal emulator and multiplexer made with Rust.

iTerm2 - A terminal emulator for macOS that does amazing things.

Sakura - sakura is a terminal emulator based on GTK and libvte

Konsole - Konsole is a free terminal emulator which is part of KDE Software Compilation.

Terminology - Common uses of the term are, "html coding" and "html website". A website created in pure html is also referred to as a static website. In other words, it does not interact with the visitor other than in the most basic ways.