Fluent Terminal – Open-source, native Windows 10 tabbed terminal
github.com
github.com
Those web-based ones have no problems with fancy font features like powerline icons or ligatures but they still have a limitation when it comes to color support. [1] Fluent seems to be affected from this as well.
The other important feature for me is tmux with mouse support. To my knowledge, only WSLtty [2] does this right. It lacks support for font ligatures but I value a functional tmux more than some ligature eye candy.
I still hope that Microsoft will improve their own conhost.exe in further updates. Also, the upcoming 1903 update will improve the color support those web-based terminal emulators.
It's noticeably faster and works great :)
[1]: https://cmder.net/
(So far, it beats the heck out of cmd.exe, especially for WSL...)
And this terminal is "based on web technologies" so I doubt decent speed is really achievable.
It's almost ironic that web developers are creating terminals.
I basically changed the config.lua file to use clink.get_cwd() instead of pwd(), and to
local HEADfile = io.open(git_dir.."/HEAD")
if not HEADfile then return false end
local git_branch = HEADfile:read():match('ref: refs/heads/(.*)')
HEADfile:close()
return colors.git_dirty .. " (" .. git_branch .. ")"
Breakdown of Windows Terminals
# Top Quality (supports line editing, history, scrollback, copy on select, right click paste, tabs, iterm colors, everything else you'd expect from iTerm2 or gnome-terminal)
- Fluent Terminal (native, lightweight)
- Terminus (electron, so heavier, but also excellent and stable)
- Hyper 3 Canary (electron, in beta as Hyper 2 has serious bugs, but a massive plugin ecosystem)
# Minimal (no tabs but fast and stable)
- Powershell 6.2's inbuilt terminal
- Alacritty
# Windows XP apps (UI has everything everywhere, some unfixable bugs)
- ConsoleZ
- ConEmu
# Not actually a terminal
- Cmder
More details, config files: https://github.com/mikemaccana/powershell-profile#for-a-dece...
- Console emulator ~ Conemu
- Cmd.exe enhancements ~ clink
- Unix tools on windows ~ git for windows
The Cmder website tells you this if you scroll down, but doesn't make it obvious. 'clink' in particular is of dubious utility - if you're using Windows, powershell is the default terminal, and powershell is one of Windows' best features.
The very first line of the README:
> A Terminal Emulator based on UWP and web technologies.
I understand the hate for electron apps and the demand for native. While I do use VSCode as my daily editor, I've also seen some electron apps that definitely don't make the cut.
That said, I don't understand the growing trend of using the native web view and calling it "native". (Meaning it can't be ported to other platforms, so it must be native?)
If you're building it with web technologies, you might as well just go with electron for the more modern browser[1], easier portability, and isolation from browser version changes.
[1]: I haven't looked much at the windows web view since edge came out. I was going to say perhaps this doesn't matter as much if you can select edge, but now that edge is becoming chromium anyway, I suppose the point is moot. Hooray for monocultures I guess.
You wont get something that feels like a modern Windows app if you make it with electron, also the app will balloon by 80 meg and portability again isn't an issue if your goal is to make something that feels like a modern Windows app.
I really appreciate the work of the people behind FluentTerminal and honestly had no idea it had web under the hood till I looked at the source because building it on UWP makes it feel like a first class windows app.
>The very first line of the README:
> A Terminal Emulator based on UWP and web technologies.
Yes. UWP is Windows' native development platform and has been for years now. There's some Web tech too, but it's still more lightweight than Electron. What's your point?
I started using fluent when this was posted (3 days ago) and I quite like the experience so far! I haven't had to switch back to regular CMD for anything so far!
I get that this might be because of software signing requirements on Windows, but in that case you should bundle a script that generates+signs the build using a local certificate instead of loading a random CA into the system trust source.
Your proposed individual CA model does seem like an improvement for that route, but I just enable developer mode.
I'm pretty sure network admin related versions of Windows also have tooling for operations like this but I have no experience with those.
Be warned though, a self-signed CA can be dangerous if someone else gets their hands on your private key. I myself have set up intermediary CAs to deal with HTTPS certificates or code signing certs so I can store the CA private key somewhere safe.
I just use PuTTY into a local or remote sshd as it's the least bad of everything I've tried so far. Wish it supported tabs natively tho.
If this thing supports mouse, copy-paste, good fonts, and doesn't steal or disable any of my key mapping, I'll take it
1. Having 3000 developers on LinkedIn privatemessage developers working on the windows OS apps team to have this bumped up in priority
2. Having 30 000 developers on twitter tweet @SatyaNadella and other prominent figures in the MSFT world, who could rally support and make things move at the top so the orders come down the chain to get this terminal thing settled.
That said: yes, it's alive and well. I'm using it at work, mostly because that's what everyone else in the office is using (in Japan)