TechWizard Exclusive: Linux Terminal Emulator Breaks Speed Barrier, but Developer Has No Plans for Further Development
Prominent GNOME developer Christian Hergert has recently unveiled a groundbreaking terminal emulator that outperforms the closest GPU-based renderer on Linux. Hergert’s creation is twice as fast as the popular Alacritty terminal emulator. However, despite its impressive speed, Hergert has no intention of further developing this experimental project.
Hergert, known for his contributions to GNOME Builder and Sysprof, as well as his work at Red Hat, shared the news on Twitter. In his tweet, he stated, “Just going to put it out there because I don’t intend to do anything with it, but I have created a terminal emulator that is twice as fast as the closest GPU-based renderer I’ve found (at least on Linux) which was Alacritty.” Alongside his announcement, Hergert shared a screenshot of his experimental terminal emulator running a basic performance test alongside Alacritty.
The success of Hergert’s project can be attributed to his extensive knowledge and experience in developing GTK renderer code and optimizing performance using profilers. He explained that instead of continuing with his previous project, Termkit, he opted to create a series of VTE patches, which proved to be sufficient for his needs. Hergert’s terminal emulator updates at a smooth frame rate without dropping frames, thanks to its ability to process only what is visible when rendering the next frame.
Interestingly, Hergert observed that most terminal emulators in the field utilize multiple threads and attempt to balance CPU and scroll performance. In contrast, Termkit used a single thread and achieved comparable results with fewer resources.
Despite the remarkable achievement, Hergert has no plans to develop the terminal emulator further. In a subsequent tweet, he stated, “I don’t care too much because creating your own terminal is like 20 lines of code these days. People who really care can just create one as easy as configuring an existing one.”
While Hergert’s terminal emulator may not see further development, its breakthrough in speed has sparked excitement among the Linux community. The potential for faster terminal emulators opens up possibilities for improved productivity and efficiency in the Linux ecosystem.
TechWizard will continue to monitor developments in the world of terminal emulators and bring you the latest updates on this exciting breakthrough. Stay tuned for more news and insights from the world of technology.
