9 Good Terminal Emulators for Linux

We have featured a few Terminal emulators before and introduced you to applications like CLI Companion that makes you more familiar with command line in Linux. Now, we want to take it to a whole new level. A collection of really good Terminal emulator apps for Linux.

top terminal emulators linux

Guake for its apparent simplicity is my favorite terminal emulator app for Linux. Eventhough Guake is based on KDE's Yakuake Terminal emulator(about which we will see later in the post), the original design inspiration came from consoles in computer games such as Quake which slides down from top of the screen on initiation. Guake is available in default repositories of Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu and ArchLinux. Click here to Install Guake in Ubuntu. Visit Guake download page for more download options.


Terminator is a cross-platform terminal emulator application released under GPL with many advanced features. Terminator might not be as flashy as Guake or Yakuake, but it definitely packs the punch. Useful features like resizable split panes makes Terminator the ultimate Terminal emulator application for GNOME desktop. Like Guake, Terminator is available in default repositories of almost all major Linux distros. Click here to install Terminator in Ubuntu. Visit Terminator download page for more.

yakuake

Yakuake is the original inspiration for Guake terminal emulator. Yakuake is basically a drop-down terminal emulator based on KDE Konsole technology. And since its a KDE app, when you try to install Yakuake in GNOME desktop, it will come with a pretty huge amount of KDE dependencies. But if are a KDE user, Yakuake is just perfect. Click here to install Yakuake in Ubuntu. More info on latest Yakuake packages can be found here.

roxterm emulator

ROXTerm is a terminal emulator originally intended to be a lightweight alternative to gnome-terminal. But its role has shifted overtime to providing a richer range of features for power users. It integrates pretty good with GNOME desktop environment. Supports features like drag & drop of items into Terminal windows among others. Click here to install ROXTerm in Ubuntu. Installation instructions for other distros can be found here.


Seems like Eterm is the lightest of them all. Eterm is a color terminal emulator intended as a replacement for xterm. Eterm is themeable and works pretty fast too. Click here to install Eterm in Ubuntu. To launch Eterm, type 'Eterm'(with capital 'E') and not 'eterm'. It took me some time to realize that. Visit Eterm download page for more options.

rxvt terminal

Rxvt is yet another terminal emulator application for Linux intended to replace xterm. The rxvt terminal is very light on system resources. Click here to install rxvt in Ubuntu. Visit project page for more info and download options.

aterm terminal

Aterm is an rxvt based terminal emulator application for Linux designed to provide pleasing visual effects, while performing all basic functionalities you expect in a terminal emulator. Extra features include fast pseudo-transparency, optional off-focus fading of text among others. Click here to install aterm in Ubuntu. Visit aterm project page for more info.

wterm

Wterm is another light weight terminal emulator based on rxvt code. Features of wterm include background images, transparency, and reverse transparency.  An extensive set or runtime options are available resulting in a very customizable terminal emulator. Click here to install wterm in Ubuntu. Visit project page for more info. The downside is that, wterm doesn't look like a project that is actively maintained anymore.

Install TermKit in Ubuntu 11.04

TermKit is not your every day terminal emulator application. It is a refreshingly beautiful graphic replacement for terminal. TermKit is a command line based system made on top of WebKit. Detailed instructions on how to install TermKit in Ubuntu 11.04