The terminal emulator is one of the most controversial applications in Linux. On one hand, there are the novices who do not want to know anything about it, but on the other hand, there are the more experienced users who see it as a very efficient tool to perform certain tasks. There are many good emulators, but in this post, I will talk about Alacritty that is the fastest terminal emulator for Linux.
What is Alacritty terminal emulator?
According to Github’s project profile, Alacritty is a multi-platform terminal emulator with a special focus on performance and simplicity. This makes it quite comfortable to work with, especially if you have modern computers.
How does Alacritty get so fast? Well, because it relies on the computer GPU to perform slightly more complex tasks. This makes performance soar by far.
This is why the project claims that it is the fastest terminal emulator available.
Also, Alacritty is cross-platform which makes it available to many Linux distributions quickly and easily. It is also available for MacOS, BSD and Windows.
Another important aspect of Alacritty is that it’s open source released under the terms of the Apache 2.0 license so we won’t have problems using it and seeing the source code.
Installing Alacritty on Linux
Fortunately, Alacritty is available for several Linux distributions in a simple way because they include it in their repositories or there are packages already built for them.
For Linux Arch and derivatives:
:~$ sudo pacman -S alacritty
If you use Alpine Linux:
:~$ apk add alacritty
For Fedora, on the other hand, it is sufficient to use these two commands:
:~$ sudo dnf copr enable pschyska/alacritty :~$ sudo dnf install alacritty
If you are an OpenSUSE Tumbleweed user, just run it:
:~$ sudo zypper in alacritty
In the case of Ubuntu 18.04 and Linux Mint 19 you have to add an extra repository and then install it:
:~$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mmstick76/alacritty :~$ sudo apt update :~$ sudo apt install alacritty
Also, you can find the binaries on Github. In my case, I downloaded the DEB file and then I installed using gdebi.
:~$ sudo gdebi Downloads/Alacritty-v0.4.1-ubuntu_18_04_amd64.deb
Whatever distribution was used, we’ll use it now
Using Alacritty terminal emulator
After you install it, don’t run it, because we have to copy the default configuration of the application. It’s in YML format and you can download it from here.
Then, you have to copy the file to the following location:
$HOME/.config/alacritty/
And there copy the file alacritty.yml
The configuration file is quite simple and explicit and you can modify it to your liking. However, be careful with spaces and syntax.
Now we can run Alacritty from the main menu.
And that is it.
Conclusion
There are no secrets with Alacritty. It’s a normal emulator like what we’ve used before. However, it is quite fast and very comfortable to use because of its impressive performance.
So you’ve got to get the most out of this program.
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