bemenu vs foot

bemenu is a dynamic menu library and client program inspired by dmenu. It provides the bemenu and bemenu-run clients, with build targets for curses, X11, and Wayland backends. Users can configure environment variables for options, backend selection, renderer paths, and rendering scale. The project documents default keyboard bindings and an optional Vim-style mode enabled with --binding vim. Wayland use depends on a compositor implementing the wlr-layer-shell protocol, typically a wlroots-based compositor. Clipboard pasting uses wl-paste and xclip at runtime, in that order. Building requires a C compiler, and scdoc is needed to generate the man page. The project also documents macOS build steps using Homebrew prerequisites and a build-osx.sh flow; its provided Nix expression installs only the curses backend. The client program and sources other than the library and bindings use GNU GPLv3 or later, while the library and bindings use GNU LGPLv3 or later. The project lists pinentry-bemenu as an integration. bemenu is free and open source, with no paid plans or usage limits stated.

foot is a free Linux terminal emulator for Wayland, with native Wayland support and no dependence on a particular desktop environment. Its server mode lets multiple terminal windows share one process, fonts, and glyph cache. Display features include configurable font fallback, on-the-fly font and DPI adjustment, color emoji, true color, and Sixel images. Users can search scrollback and detect URLs with the keyboard. The feature list also includes SSH support, scripting, text input through text-input-v3, and multi-seat support. Shell integration can open new terminals in the current working directory when the shell supports OSC 7; OSC 133 enables prompt navigation. URLs open with xdg-open by default, and the command can be changed in configuration. Configuration uses a foot.ini file in the user's XDG configuration directory. Installation guidance describes building with Meson and Ninja, with Wayland protocols and ncurses among the requirements. The project says foot is MIT-licensed. Its installation guide notes that full PGO builds using the real binary must run in a Wayland session.