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I have kubuntu, which is with KDE, but the Konsole has been glitchy for me and what are other terminals are good for Ubuntu.

Basically, what is the default terminal for Ubuntu? I think KDE just deleted it and gave me Konsole instead.(What apt package is the default one?)

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    When you say “glitchy”, could you please be more specific?
    – lxg
    Nov 28, 2020 at 20:34
  • @lxg It is very slow, and when I had gnome it was faster
    – Leo
    Nov 28, 2020 at 20:57

2 Answers 2

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The default terminal for KDE is konsole.

KDE is Qt5 based using KDE Framworks 5, so Qt5 & KF5 libraries & toolkits will already be in memory (RAM). It's use will be fastest, and not waste resources (esp. RAM)

Konsole is Qt based (the upper-case K is commonly a clue as to being a KDE/Qt based tool), thus will use libraries already in memory as they're being used by the KDE desktop itself.

gnome-terminal is GTK3 based, so it's use will cause GTK3 or GNOME libraries to also be in memory, thus will involve a resource hit, which maybe minor if you've plenty of RAM and can afford the hit, but on a RAM limited box every hit (wasted KB or MB of RAM) counts. This resource hit will worry you less if you're going to be using other GTK3 programs that will also share those libraries, but it's still a hit.

As the default GNOME desktop is GTK3, using gnome-terminal has no costs there. The reverse would apply, ie. the use of konsole on a GNOME desktop would waste resources and be inefficient.

Other alternatives exist, eg. qterminal is Qt5 based so will use less resources than a terminal that uses almost nothing already in RAM. There are many choices, but don't forget efficiency, unless your box has fast processors & heaps of RAM thus don't need to worry.

My point is there are reasons for the decisions made, and your choice will waste RAM. (why each flavor uses it's own unique terminal which is most efficient in the chosen desktop).

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    This was written after the other answer had been written & already accepted. It was written for informational purposes, ie. my attempt to help explain the reasons why different desktops use different (yet similar) programs - keeping the users system efficient. They could be like commercial (microsoft/apple) software & just say more RAM is required.. but instead spend the effort creating from scratch, or forking existing code then changing it to uselibraries/toolkits already in RAM meaning the end-user gets the fastest & most efficient end system. In the end it's the user's choice what they use
    – guiverc
    Nov 29, 2020 at 7:51
  • And, you wrote a perfectly fine answer. It got my vote!
    – KGIII
    Nov 29, 2020 at 15:58
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The default terminal in Ubuntu is gnome-terminal. It can be installed with:

sudo apt install gnome-terminal

You can do a search for lists of alternative terminals, though there's a small list on Wikipedia.

I don't want to favor any particular site, so here is one such link.

One oft mentioned favorite is Terminator for the feature set. You're not limited to one terminal emulator, you can install as many as you'd like and then pick which suits your needs most.

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  • How can it be the default terminal if it's not even installed by default?
    – Asteroids With Wings
    Nov 29, 2020 at 22:30
  • @AsteroidsWithWings It is installed by default - in Ubuntu. The OP is using Kubuntu which has a default terminal of konsole. The default terminal in Ubuntu is gnome-terminal, which is installed by default in Ubuntu.
    – KGIII
    Nov 29, 2020 at 22:38
  • Ah, that makes sense :)
    – Asteroids With Wings
    Nov 29, 2020 at 22:46

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