# Konsole 39 Hacker News commenters recommended Konsole and 19 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Mature, fast terminal that works well and has the features people need, and it is flexible to configure. Main caveat: setup takes effort and the interface feels dated. ## Why people recommend it - Works well with needed features (4 comments): "To me the point of Konsole is that it works well, plus it's already there." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50262985)) "Konsole seems to keep up with modern features as well." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50266964)) "It "just works" and has all the features I need." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49979757)) - Fast and responsive in use (5 comments): "the default terminal app from KDE (Konsole) renders and keeps Claude Code responsive enough" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48629524)) "Konsole for its flexibility and feature set while remaining really performant" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48361194)) "Konsole is way faster than any of those on my computer" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50262524)) - Flexible and customisable settings (4 comments): "Konsole and KDE stuff in general will let you set Mac-style bindings (with some config effort)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45811277)) "Konsole for its flexibility and feature set while remaining really performant" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48361194)) "I have chezmoi apply my konsole settings onto every new machine" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50291158)) - Mature and used for years (4 comments): "Konsole is a fantastic and very mature terminal emulator, but it does have some real gaps that reveal its age." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50266276)) "It's already been in KDE and konsole for more than 5 years!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47791430)) "I used Konsole for years and it's great" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48362750)) ## What people warn about - Configuration is heavy and cluttered (4 comments): "Konsole required much configuration to be not way too busy" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47283196)) "Konsole configuration has many options, but none that I can immediately see to change the default font size" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46486168)) "is showing its age and has a bit of a widget bloat and an unwieldy configuration system" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50267965)) - Dated, cluttered UI and toolbars (5 comments): "The giant copy paste buttons, tab bar which wastes a ton of space, are typical of kde apps." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47288098)) "all their in house actual windowed applications like Konsole and Kate are mediocre at best" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47288979)) "is showing its age and has a bit of a widget bloat and an unwieldy configuration system" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50267965)) - Missing features and rough edges (4 comments): "Konsole is a fantastic and very mature terminal emulator, but it does have some real gaps that reveal its age." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50266276)) "Konsole does not have a way of changing the layout of tiles" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47946732)) "Unfortunately Konsole has this feature that each time you switch tabs the maximized window shrinks by a couple of pixels" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45809307)) - Slow rendering and high overhead (2 comments): "Konsole inspects process metadata on the host via `flatpak-spawn`, which has a high overhead." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50328555)) "Konsole is not gpu accelerated and is several orders of magnitude slower" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50263705)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Ghostty](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ghostty.md): 401 recommend - [Termux](https://hackerapproved.com/p/termux.md): 188 recommend - [iTerm2](https://hackerapproved.com/p/iterm2.md): 95 recommend - [Warp terminal](https://hackerapproved.com/p/warp-terminal.md): 84 recommend - [Kitty terminal emulator](https://hackerapproved.com/p/kitty.md): 79 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Konsole", https://hackerapproved.com/p/konsole/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).