{"slug": "foot", "name": "foot", "category": "terminal", "category_name": "Terminal and shell", "description": "", "recommenders": 2, "commenters": 5, "warners": 0, "score": 2.784, "rising": 1.67, "first": "2025-11-03", "latest": "2026-10-27", "why": "I use Foot, which as far as I've tested is the fastest to launch.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 4, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1], "listed": false, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I use Foot, which as far as I've tested is the fastest to launch.", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["foot", "Foot"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 804218992, "item_id": 50263687, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50263687", "by": "christophilus", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Foot, which as far as I've tested is the fastest to launch.", "excerpt": "Yeah. It's slow on Linux, for sure. I use Foot, which as far as I've tested is the fastest to launch. I use Niri and launch Foot terminals all the time as part of my workflow (it's just how my mind works), so time to launch matters to me.", "context": "Niri user", "use_case": "fast-launching terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty 1.4"}, {"id": 787087714, "item_id": 49192982, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49192982", "by": "jolmg", "date": "2026-08-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "On the PPP, SXMO with sway WM/composer, foot terminal, and wvkbd as a keyboard is very responsive, too.", "excerpt": "I get it. Got one. Compromises are many. Speed wise, it clears the bar for me of being able to watch Youtube on Firefox and use the controls, but yeah it's got bugs and other issues. I may be able to tolerate the speed because of how I used my netbook many years ago. Windows XP was completely useless because of how laggy the GUI was. Archlinux with i3 and a focus on using the shell with a very light terminal (urxvt; ", "context": "Pinephone Pro user", "use_case": "terminal on phone", "switched_from": "", "story": "I'm switching my phone from Android to Linux"}, {"id": 783272914, "item_id": 48954557, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48954557", "by": "christophilus", "date": "2026-07-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Fedora + Niri + Foot + Podman + Neovim is better with each release.", "excerpt": "iOS has gotten worse. No doubt about it. I don\u2019t think k that\u2019s AI induced. I think Apple have lost the plot. On the other hand, Fedora + Niri + Foot + Podman + Neovim is better with each release.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Is it just me, or is software buggier across the board?"}, {"id": 781229809, "item_id": 48826863, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48826863", "by": "christophilus", "date": "2026-07-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Just Niri + Foot (terminal) and it\u2019s perfect for the way my brain works.", "excerpt": "Niri is a perfect window manager approach, in my opinion. I don\u2019t need tmux. Just Niri + Foot (terminal) and it\u2019s perfect for the way my brain works. If you haven\u2019t tried it, I highly recommended it.", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Herdr: One terminal to rule them all"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [{"by": "christophilus", "context": "Niri user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50263687", "date": "2026-10-27"}, {"by": "jolmg", "context": "Pinephone Pro user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49192982", "date": "2026-08-05"}, {"by": "skydhash", "context": "OpenBSD user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49150353", "date": "2026-08-02"}, {"by": "imiric", "context": "Wayland user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45804675", "date": "2025-11-03"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["terminal emulator", "terminal", "fast-launching terminal", "terminal on phone", "wayland terminal"], "compared": [{"slug": "st", "name": "st", "co": 3, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "urxvt", "name": "urxvt", "co": 3, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "niri", "name": "niri", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "tmux", "name": "tmux", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "sway", "name": "Sway", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "ghostty", "name": "Ghostty", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50261998", "title": "Ghostty 1.4", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50084240", "title": "Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif monospace font", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49188022", "title": "I'm switching my phone from Android to Linux", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49149326", "title": "Show HN: Shitty \u2013 fast terminal. Memory-unsafe and faster than yours", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48920698", "title": "Ask HN: Is it just me, or is software buggier across the board?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48756578", "title": "Herdr: One terminal to rule them all", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"neutral": 1}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 804218992, "item_id": 50263687, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50263687", "by": "christophilus", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Foot, which as far as I've tested is the fastest to launch.", "excerpt": "Yeah. It's slow on Linux, for sure. I use Foot, which as far as I've tested is the fastest to launch. I use Niri and launch Foot terminals all the time as part of my workflow (it's just how my mind works), so time to launch matters to me.", "context": "Niri user", "use_case": "fast-launching terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty 1.4"}, {"id": 801359731, "item_id": 50084983, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50084983", "by": "gadrev", "date": "2026-10-14", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Some time ago I switched to wayland/sway/foot", "excerpt": "Nice one. I used it for some years, mostly in urxvt. Some time ago I switched to wayland/sway/foot, and I'm on 0xProtoNerdFont, quite pleasant as well.", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "urxvt", "story": "Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif monospace font"}, {"id": 787087714, "item_id": 49192982, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49192982", "by": "jolmg", "date": "2026-08-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "On the PPP, SXMO with sway WM/composer, foot terminal, and wvkbd as a keyboard is very responsive, too.", "excerpt": "I get it. Got one. Compromises are many. Speed wise, it clears the bar for me of being able to watch Youtube on Firefox and use the controls, but yeah it's got bugs and other issues. I may be able to tolerate the speed because of how I used my netbook many years ago. Windows XP was completely useless because of how laggy the GUI was. Archlinux with i3 and a focus on using the shell with a very light terminal (urxvt; ", "context": "Pinephone Pro user", "use_case": "terminal on phone", "switched_from": "", "story": "I'm switching my phone from Android to Linux"}, {"id": 786405649, "item_id": 49150353, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49150353", "by": "skydhash", "date": "2026-08-02", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "foot and st felt as fast when I was using them.", "excerpt": "I'm using OpenBSD with xterm, and when I use something like `time xterm -e 'sh -c \"echo 1; exit\"'`, it says 360ms or something. Starting it with the wm keybinds is as snappy as opening a new Firefox tab. foot and st felt as fast when I was using them.", "context": "OpenBSD user", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Shitty \u2013 fast terminal. Memory-unsafe and faster than yours"}, {"id": 783272914, "item_id": 48954557, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48954557", "by": "christophilus", "date": "2026-07-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Fedora + Niri + Foot + Podman + Neovim is better with each release.", "excerpt": "iOS has gotten worse. No doubt about it. I don\u2019t think k that\u2019s AI induced. I think Apple have lost the plot. On the other hand, Fedora + Niri + Foot + Podman + Neovim is better with each release.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Is it just me, or is software buggier across the board?"}, {"id": 781229809, "item_id": 48826863, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48826863", "by": "christophilus", "date": "2026-07-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Just Niri + Foot (terminal) and it\u2019s perfect for the way my brain works.", "excerpt": "Niri is a perfect window manager approach, in my opinion. I don\u2019t need tmux. Just Niri + Foot (terminal) and it\u2019s perfect for the way my brain works. If you haven\u2019t tried it, I highly recommended it.", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Herdr: One terminal to rule them all"}, {"id": 759400337, "item_id": 47462521, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47462521", "by": "imiric", "date": "2026-03-20", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "such as urxvt, st, and now foot", "excerpt": "This looks interesting. I don't need my terminal emulator to support tabs, windows, or session management. My WM handles tabs and windows just fine, and I use tmux for sessions, which also gives me a scrollback buffer, selection, clipboard, search, etc. This combination allows me to use any simple terminal emulator, such as urxvt, st, and now foot, without issues. Ghostty didn't appeal to me, but I might give this a ", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostling"}, {"id": 732874801, "item_id": 45804675, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45804675", "by": "imiric", "date": "2025-11-03", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I switched to `foot` when I migrated to Wayland a few months ago", "excerpt": "This[1] is an up-to-date fork with sixel support, and a few other patches. IMO it's unfair to compare barebones `st` with fully-featured terminals. The entire point of `st` is for users to apply their own patches to it, which does make it difficult to compare, since there's no standard version of it. `st` is a pretty great terminal. I switched to `foot` when I migrated to Wayland a few months ago, but not for any pra", "context": "Wayland user", "use_case": "Wayland terminal", "switched_from": "st", "story": "State of Terminal Emulators in 2025: The Errant Champions"}]}