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csdvrx
CuteXterm
C2021–2023
csdvrx / CuteXterm

CuteXterm

Sensible defaults for xterm in the 21st century

Explore on GitHubRead Hacker News discussions
3Distinct people
11Mentions
1Explicit recommenders
66GitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

Sensible defaults for xterm in the 21st century

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use has been verified yet.

What people are saying

xterm is very good. It's only now that I've moved to Linux on the desktop that I found better with wezterm (for tabs mostly) and foot (for a quick quaketerm). wezterm is now…

csdvrx used a recommendation phrase. One indexed comment matches. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.

No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these discussions

No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 1:49:46 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by month11 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2021-06-04 04:36:07 UTC to 2023-05-01 02:52:46 UTC.

01232021-06-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-07-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 commentsJun 20212021-07-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-08-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2021-08-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-09-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2021-09-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-10-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2021-10-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-11-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 3 mentions; 0 submissions, 3 comments2021-11-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-12-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2021-12-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-02-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2022-02-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-03-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2022-03-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-04-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2022-04-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-05-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2022-05-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-06-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 1 submissions, 0 commentsMay 20222022-06-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-07-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 0 submissions, 2 comments2022-07-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-08-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2022-08-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-09-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2022-09-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-10-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2022-10-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-11-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2022-11-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-12-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2022-12-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2023-02-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2023-02-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2023-03-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2023-03-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2023-04-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2023-04-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2023-05-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2023-05-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2023-06-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 commentsMay 2023

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
Jun 20212021-06-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-07-01 00:00:00 UTC101
Jul 20212021-07-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-08-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Aug 20212021-08-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-09-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Sep 20212021-09-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-10-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Oct 20212021-10-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-11-01 00:00:00 UTC303
Nov 20212021-11-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-12-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Dec 20212021-12-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Jan 20222022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-02-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Feb 20222022-02-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-03-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Mar 20222022-03-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-04-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Apr 20222022-04-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-05-01 00:00:00 UTC000
May 20222022-05-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-06-01 00:00:00 UTC110
Jun 20222022-06-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-07-01 00:00:00 UTC202
Jul 20222022-07-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-08-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Aug 20222022-08-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-09-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Sep 20222022-09-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-10-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Oct 20222022-10-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-11-01 00:00:00 UTC101
Nov 20222022-11-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-12-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Dec 20222022-12-01 00:00:00 UTC2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Jan 20232023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2023-02-01 00:00:00 UTC101
Feb 20232023-02-01 00:00:00 UTC2023-03-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Mar 20232023-03-01 00:00:00 UTC2023-04-01 00:00:00 UTC101
Apr 20232023-04-01 00:00:00 UTC2023-05-01 00:00:00 UTC000
May 20232023-05-01 00:00:00 UTC2023-06-01 00:00:00 UTC101

What Hacker News says

11 sources
csdvrx·May 1, 2023Recommendation phrase
xterm is very good. It's only now that I've moved to Linux on the desktop that I found better with wezterm (for tabs mostly) and foot (for a quick quaketerm). wezterm is now becoming my favorite: it's not just very fast and responsive, but it supports sixels and has many little "details" I need like ligatures, telling you when a font doesn't support some unicode character, font fallbacks to maximize unicode coverage, and a very active community that can help you with whatever may not be clear from reading the documentation alone (I'm lua-challenged lol) As for tabs in xterm, and a few other nice defaults I recommend the config I made during my last foray with Linux on the desktop: https://github.com/csdvrx/cutexterm
In Xterm: It's better than you thought (2021)
csdvrx·Oct 7, 2022
> Nomacs is about as cross-platform as it gets. Exactly. Most software is cross platform, and a few odd ones run only on Windows, so you get most software. > Aero snap (or whatever Win+arrows is called now) is not a replacement for a tiling wm For most cases, yes. Add that other shortcuts to have windows at specific coordinates and stripped of borders, and it's the same. > you being happy to finally have a _terminal_, of all things, is just sad lol https://github.com/csdvrx/cuteXterm
In Upgrade to Linux
csdvrx·Jun 25, 2022
> Surely you need AHK because Windows is less configurable No, but because it lets me do remaps, like having Caps be both Control and Esc - and I do the same with Enter being both Control when used with another key, and Enter alone. My Alt keys are Alt keys when used with another key, or Home/End when used alone. My physical Esc key is a "jump to terminal" key that takes me from wherever to my fullscreen terminal, then back. For example, from the browser: one press of Esc gets me to the terminal, another press gets me back to the browser - and likewise for every app (not just the browser). That's even better than quake-mode! I have other sequences to copy/paste images as base64enc and other crazy things that make my life easier: like changing the system and app theme to dark (or back to light), applying a color inversion +- red filter (
Read the rest
late at night, no white: it's all just red), an OLED-black filter (to convert bad greys to pure black) > How are you using terminals in Windows? Like you want to SSH from a fresh install, what do I do? Install openssh from the windows settings: check https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administrati... I'd recommend the latest Windows terminal from the Microsoft store, or mintty from msys2, but that's just for comfort :) > I find Linux superior here, but interested to learn why you're the opposite; maybe I'm doing it wrong I like sixels, so I prefer mintty, but even without sixels, I find the Windows experience better. Yes, I want sixels and cute fonts with ligatures in my terminal. But I want proper support of bold, underline, italic. I want multiple tabs. I want to map key actions to everything - like, I want my terminal to change its color profile and font with just 1 key. I want keyboard shortcuts to different profiles with different shells or ssh hosts (with color or other titlebar/tab indicators to know at a glance which is which) That's very hard on Linux, and sometimes just impossible. That's easy on Windows. https://github.com/csdvrx/cuteXterm#why-did-you-make-cutexte...
In I Finally Found a Solid Debian Tablet: The Surface Go 2
csdvrx·Jun 25, 2022
> Agree, honestly I don’t see the point of WSL, it is far less hassle to either Remote Desktop into a real Linux machine, or run a VM. Windows is way more configurable than Linux. To this day, there's nothing like AHK on Linux! Also, Windows offers the best terminal experience. I've tried foot on Wayland, it's ok, but I want better than ok. I've spend too much time trying to squeeze a good experience out of xterm (https://github.com/csdvrx/cuteXterm)
In I Finally Found a Solid Debian Tablet: The Surface Go 2
saladuh·Oct 6, 2021
Apologies for misgendering you. My opinion that you come off like a windows fangirl was mostly due to the other rant you linked in the sixel-tmux rant: https://github.com/csdvrx/cutexterm#wait-i-thought-people-sa... Here you mention some other things unrelated to terminals, and I was mostly addressing those. It seems to me you want a specific type of experience on Linux, but you can't get that, so therefore dismiss the merits of Linux. I think a lot of your impressions on Linux come from using an X11 based setup instead of Wayland. Completely different beasts, and I think a lot of your grievances would be solved by the latter. For me, I cannot go back to Windows, ethical reasons aside: Sway on Wayland is perfect for me, and it's what I want out of my computing experience. I actually agree with a lot that is written in those rants, particu
Read the rest
larly the VTE and gnome terminal situation. It's just your comments on windows vs linux came across as very personal imo, so I suppose I have retorted here with also a somewhat personal rant. Also, I don't think either platform has many good terminal choices. Besides mintty, I don't think there are that many good (platform exclusive) terminal emulators on Windows. And on Linux, Foot is one of the few that meets my criteria, including top tier Sixel support (though Wezterm meets my criteria too if it wasn't so slow, hopefully it gets faster). But, for example, I could never really like mintty if I was forced to use Windows, because it lacks features I want. What I'm trying to say: different needs, different use cases, different tastes. Sorry that my original rant came off so negatively to you and that I wasn't able to convey this point I was trying to make.
In Show HN: Sixel-tmux displays graphics even if your terminal has no Sixel support
saladuh·Oct 6, 2021
No, my 'rant' came from this section of this other rant[0], which is linked in the rant in OP's linked repo. I suppose I should have made this more obvious instead of assuming everyone would read the links provided in the whole rant (because I did indeed read the whole entire rant, and I agree with a lot of it, just not the part about windows being better than Linux and everyone who disagrees is a "millennial" seeking "geek cred", which originally misquoted in my 'rant'). [0] https://github.com/csdvrx/cutexterm#wait-i-thought-people-sa...
In Show HN: Sixel-tmux displays graphics even if your terminal has no Sixel support
csdvrx·Jun 4, 2021
There are many ways to use ZFS for windows... even without OpenZfs on Windows! Check https://happyadministrator.com/2020/11/29/windows-users-prob... : it's not just for servers. The performance gains and extra features make it worth doing for a regular desktop. Personally, I am a Windows 10 fan. I have tried Linux but found the command line experience sub optimal ( explained on https://github.com/csdvrx/cutexterm ) - except for the filesystem! So for my next Windows 10 installation, I preparing a KVM GPU passthrough, just to keep using msys2 on MinTTY for a wonderful user interface, yet with a great filesystem behind (a raid of NVMe, datasets snapshotting etc...) That should give the best of both worlds!
In History of ZFS Part 2: Exploding in Popularity

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