Konsole
KDE's default terminal emulator for Linux and other Unix-like desktops.
HN commenters use it as a dependable daily driver on KDE,123 with a settings screen they find friendlier than the config files of Kitty or Alacritty.45 The most common caveat is speed,67 with some tests showing it slower than Kitty and Ghostty.8910
Why people recommend it
Daily driver · 3
Several commenters have used it every day for years and say it works well.
“Thank you for Konsole. It is my daily driver and works well on KDE 6.8 for me.”
“I use Konsole daily and have all the toolbars hidden.”
Show 1 more
“we could simply use bash and KDE konsole with, say, 10 tabs. That setup works for me since ages”
Settings GUI · 2
Its settings screen is easier to start with than terminals that require editing a config file.
“I use konsole and has significantly more user friendly screen to manage settings.”
“I use Konsole daily and have all the toolbars hidden.”
Tabs and SSH · 2
Commenters use it with many tabs and moved their SSH and PuTTY configs to it.
“we could simply use bash and KDE konsole with, say, 10 tabs. That setup works for me since ages”
“All my various ssh / putty configs migrated to Konsole”
Feature-rich · 1
Even a critic called it efficient and feature-rich.
“Konsole while great (efficient and feature-rich) is showing its age and has a bit of a widget bloat and an unwieldy configuration system.”
Caveats and dissent
Speed and latency · 3
Some tests found it slower than Kitty and Ghostty, though one tester said the gap was not noticeable.
I was curious to see what the actual latency was, so I used Pavel Fatin's https://pavelfatin.com/typometer/. Notes: This system is running Arch, with kernel 7.0.3, scx_bpfland, and i3 on X11. Primary GPU is an integrated Intel GPU. Using picom: Terminal Min Max Avg SD alacritty 20.1 111.4 43.8 18.0 xfce4-terminal 19.1 112.5 49.1 17.9 xterm 12.3 152.6 53.1 26.4 wezterm 28.3 106.0 56.2 15.4 kitty 25.3 115.9 57.2 18.5 g
Show 1 more
“I use konsole and has significantly more user friendly screen to manage settings.”
Aging design · 1
One commenter says it shows its age, with widget bloat and an unwieldy configuration system.
“Konsole while great (efficient and feature-rich) is showing its age and has a bit of a widget bloat and an unwieldy configuration system.”
Scrollback memory · 1
Unlimited scrollback can use about 15GB of RAM over weeks, and search can hang.
“Thank you for Konsole. It is my daily driver and works well on KDE 6.8 for me.”
Font rendering · 1
One former user said it lacked some font rendering features, though this may have since changed.
Often compared with
Who recommends it in their own words
Threads where it came up
- Ghostty 1.4 4 mentions
- No new Ghostty updates since March 1 mention
- A Love Letter to Flashcards 1 mention
- Good Tools Are Invisible 1 mention
- Pledging Another $400k to the Zig Software Foundation 1 mention
- KDE Plasma 6.7 Released 1 mention
Data: konsole.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 15
“Thank you for Konsole. It is my daily driver and works well on KDE 6.8 for me.”
“It's xterm on OpenBSD, konsole on Fedora KDE, terminal.app on MacOS”
“Konsole while great (efficient and feature-rich) is showing its age and has a bit of a widget bloat and an unwieldy configuration system.”
“I have used Konsole for many years”
“I'm a Konsole guy.”
“I use KDE konsole”
“I usually have a konsole window that I alt+tab into whenever I need to build or run tests”
“I use konsole and has significantly more user friendly screen to manage settings.”
“I use Konsole daily and have all the toolbars hidden.”
I was curious to see what the actual latency was, so I used Pavel Fatin's https://pavelfatin.com/typometer/. Notes: This system is running Arch, with kernel 7.0.3, scx_bpfland, and i3 on X11. Primary GPU is an integrated Intel GPU. Using picom: Terminal Min Max Avg SD alacritty 20.1 111.4 43.8 18.0 xfce4-terminal 19.1 112.5 49.1 17.9 xterm 12.3 152.6 53.1 26.4 wezterm 28.3 106.0 56.2 15.4 kitty 25.3 115.9 57.2 18.5 g
“All my various ssh / putty configs migrated to Konsole”
“there I tend to prefer KDE konsole”
“we could simply use bash and KDE konsole with, say, 10 tabs. That setup works for me since ages”
“KDE konsole is good”
“I'll happily keep using alacritty, konsole and xterm”