Why nobody like xterm?

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I tried to compare ram consuming of three terminal emulator using this command:

ps aux | grep -Ei 'xterm|mate-terminal|wezterm-gui' | grep -v grep | awk '{printf "%-8s %-6s %-25s %6.1f%% %8.2f MB\n", $1, $2, $11, $4, $6/1024}'

And I achieved this result:

uge      1267   /usr/bin/mate-terminal       0.6%    60.84 MB                  
uge      14989  /usr/bin/wezterm-gui         2.8%   257.87 MB                  
uge      15283  xterm                        0.1%    10.02 MB

From here, it’s clear how cumbersome wezterm is compared to the others
and how xterm outperforms them all.
But despite this, it seems no one appreciates xterm.
What do you thinks about?

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People probably just use whatever their DE has as the default. Most systems these days aren’t memory-starved.

Isn’t it great that there are options?

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@clingonoby depends on the setup, for example I use ptyxis on wayland as it will use both the cpu and Prime Render Offload gpu.

There are many others that will take advantage of more modern hardware and Prime Render Offload without user intervention. Likewise terminal features and configuration, work flow all makes a difference.

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I often use “xterm”, so your “no one” is wrong.

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I can’t remember whether xterm can even be copied and pasted from, much less how if it can. It has had what looks like a scrollbar for scrollback that does nothing every time I’ve opened it.

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Just started an X-term (from a Konsole in my KDE session) and I could copy what is on it in the normal way (left button of my mouse down at one side of the text, moving to the other side and releaving the button) and it is in my clipboard now and I will paste it here

henk@boven:~>

by clicking the middle mouse-button.

So not different from any other text application in my session.

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I often do that. Use middle-click to paste.

I mostly use the scroll wheel for that. The middle mouse button works fine in the scroll bar.

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My trackballs have no middle buttons.

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It is possible to emulate middle mouse button by clicking right and left at the same time. But a maintained and up to date DE is required…which provides such features.

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Then you will have another way to paste (or do the things that are done using the mouse middle button), or do you never copy/paste (I assume you do copy/paste, else your starting remark would be nill).

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In which case I use Konsole, not Xterm.

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I use IceWM mainly as a fallback, to compare behavior to a primary DE, but sometimes not, so Konsole or equivalent isn’t there to use instead of Xterm. When in a fresh minimal installation with only TWM or IceWM sessions available, there is only Xterm. It would be nice if the default terminal emulator sitting on IceWM’s toolbar wasn’t so crude as to have what only looks a scrollbar when one doesn’t have the dexterity to use multiple buttons and pointer movement, or avoid pointer movement, at the same time. The closest thing I’ve found to an Xterm alternative that doesn’t require deps many times its size to support it is LXterminal, but I spend more time trying to make it friendly than using it to capture some command output to copy and paste. When I finish all its setup work, it still has a mousetype menu. When I know ahead of time I am going to need specific command output, I just echo the command to be run to a file, then the actual command, but what likely happens in that case is need to start over and redirect errors along with standard output, but can’t, because even farther backing up to do over is required, if even possible because the original was a one shot opportunity in the first place.

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Sorry, I do not get you. I use Konsole a lot and of course copy/paste in the same way as in all other programs: xterm konsole, browser, …

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The choice of DE doesn’t limit your ability to run Konsole or any other terminal - if it’s installed, you’d be able to run it regardless of the DE.

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I don’t use secret keyboard commands any more than I must, and also remember that exist. Konsole, Xfce terminal, LXterminal and others have menu bars, which Xterm lacks, which are what I use for such things as copy and paste.

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Sure, if, otherwise interrupt train of thought and procedure to install, then if procedure wasn’t a one-shot opportunity, try to recover train of thought to move foreward.

What I’ve been writing about here is in response to thread subject, why don’t like, and for the the test, troubleshoot and isolate contexts I spend extensive time involved with, not my everyday DE on primary PC with everything normally used long since already installed. For such situations, I don’t like Xterm.

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Fair enough. Just didn’t want those following along (or who read this thread in the future) to think that if you’re not running Plasma (for example), you can’t use Konsole. :slight_smile:

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shift+insert typically will paste into an xterm, IIRC, if you haven’t any middle mouse button.

But it’s been forever and a day since I used xterm, so I could be wrong.

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Hello, “no one” speaking :slight_smile:
I do appreciate xterm a huge lot. First time I used it must have been 1993 or something, and since then I have used it on a lot of different OSs over the decades.

xterm serves me as a trusty workhorse for my command-line based workflows. I do not use desktop environments because I like the classical tool set approach - combining a window manager of my choice with a terminal emulator and multiplexer, a file manager, an editor, file viewers etc. all of my choice.

This kind of freedom is one of the greatest advantages of open source software to me.

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I say that because reading around and watching linux youtuber seems nobody use it.