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Vasil Vasilev
Vasil Vasilev

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Terminal Comparison

Hello everyone,

I want to hear some comparison between the MAC OSX terminal app and the iTerm2 application. what are their pros and cons and which will you prefer and why?

Vasil

Top comments (6)

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Ben Halpern

While some might hate the idea of a web-technology-based terminal, some folks really seem to love Hyper.

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Ali Spittel

I like ITerm primarily because of the multiple panes! iTerm panes I think there are other customizations you can use as well, but that's my main reason!

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Valentin Baca

Some key features of iTerm:

  • Free
  • Lightweight / Fast
  • Easily and highly customizable, but also "just works" out of the box
  • Configurable notifications (show me the bell sound, don't make that godawful noise)
  • Color tabs
  • Switching between tabs with Command+1, Command+2, etc.
  • Command+Clicking a url (say in my notes open in Vim) goes to the page! I LOVE LOVE LOVE this feature. Caveat: it has had a security issue in the past, so be aware to not hover over sensitive data while holding Cmd.
  • Panes
  • Tmux integration (if you're not using tmux or screen or something equivalent, start now)
  • Optional Cmd+Q protection (redundant with tmux, but still nice)

Essentially, the only reason not to install iTerm is if you don't have permissions to install apps :)

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Vasil Vasilev

I loved your answer!
Totally agree with you iTerm is LOVE :D

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Ben Sinclair

I don't know what the state is today, but historically (as with a lot of bundled software) the Mac app has lagged pretty far behind other modern terminals with features such as split-screens, colour and mouse support.

Even if it has caught up today, I suspect many people are just in the habit of installing iTerm on new machines.

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Daniel Toebe

With iTerm2 I am able to use mouse mode on vim. I can have a NERDTree buffer, and 2 other buffers with files open. And I can scroll as if it were any non terminal editor