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Windows Terminal vs xterm

Windows Terminal

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xterm

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Side by side

FigureWindows Terminalxterm
Price fromFreeFree
Free planYesYes
Free trial——
Open source——
WindowsYesYes
macOS—Yes
Linux—Yes
Plans published11
Spec score · Terminal apps8.4 (#6)7.9 (#26)
Spec score · Terminal Emulators7.6 (#33)7.6 (#34)
Free planYesYes
PurposeWindows Terminal is a host application for command-line shells such as Command Prompt, PowerShell, and bash through WSL.xterm is a terminal emulator for the X Window System.
Scripting APIYesYes
Split panesYesNo
SSH supportYesYes
Supported platformsWindowslinux,macos,windows

Plans

Windows Terminal

  • Windows TerminalFree

Windows Terminal pricing →

xterm

  • FreeFree

xterm pricing →

In their own words

Windows Terminal

Windows Terminal has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.

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xterm

xterm is a free terminal emulator for the X Window System, available for Linux, macOS, and Windows. It emulates DEC VT102 and VT220 terminals, selected features from VT320, VT420, and VT520, and Tektronix 4014 graphics. Separate xterm windows can run on remote machines and display locally over the X protocol; SSH support is also listed. The current version implements ISO/ANSI colors using background color erase. If the operating system supports terminal resizing, xterm can notify programs running in its window when its size changes. It works with different flavors of the Athena widgets and includes scripting support. The official page links to source and archive downloads, while the FAQ points to a manual page covering command-line options, X resources, and other configuration settings. Related components add support for encodings beyond ISO-8859-1 and UTF-8, X resource support, and TrueType fonts. The FAQ documents known limitations, including color behavior that can revert to monochrome. The maintainer has worked on xterm since early 1996; its origins are described as a collective effort maintained by the X Consortium.

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