Rio terminal
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 22 of 40 terminal emulators by recommenders
People recommend Rio for its simpler, more capable window model, instant launch and sixel support. The most common caveat is subtle usability issues that become too much for some users.
People recommend Rio for its simpler, more capable window model, instant launch and sixel support. The most common caveat is subtle usability issues that become too much for some users.
12 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 83%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Simpler and more capable than X
“All of Rio in Plan9 is 6K lines of code and it’s a more powerful display protocol and window manager”
Comment from 4 Jan 2026 in “Can I start using Wayland in 2026?” “Inferno's version of Rio which is a lot more comprehensible.”
Comment from 23 Jan 2026 in “30 Years of ReactOS” “Rio and its predecesor in Unix v8/v10 did it better than X.”
Comment from 28 Mar 2026 in “Cocoa-Way – Native macOS Wayland compositor for running Linux apps seamlessly” - Comment from 20 Aug 2026 in “Xorg-Server 26.0.99.901”
Windows with text streams and namespaces
“You can freely resize the 9front's rio window manager's windows running rc”
Comment from 18 Feb 2026 in “Terminals should generate the 256-color palette” “With rio windows I get an actual text stream to copy and paste”
Comment from 19 Feb 2026 in “Terminals should generate the 256-color palette” “windows under plan9/9front have their own namespace”
Comment from 28 Mar 2026 in “People inside Microsoft are fighting to drop mandatory Microsoft Account” Instant launch with sixel support
“The launch is perceptually instant on all my machines, and it does support sixels and all that nonsense.”
Comment from 27 Oct 2026 in “Ghostty 1.4” “Rio can use different fonts just fine, you know.”
Comment from 18 Feb 2026 in “Terminals should generate the 256-color palette” Adopted as daily terminal
“Rio is already designed and working.”
Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “Wayland set the Linux Desktop back by 10 years” “I'm now on rio and ghostty.”
Comment from 9 Sep 2026 in “iTerm Team Cooked”
Other terminal emulators people recommend
The four most recommended other terminal emulators, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ghostty | 401 | 158 | 72% | 12 | 3 mo22 owners | Approved |
| Termux | 188 | 31 | 86% | 12 | 1 yr6 owners | Approved |
| iTerm2 | 95 | 69 | 58% | 12 | 10 yrs4 owners | — |
| Warp terminal | 84 | 86 | 49% | 11 | 1 yr5 owners | — |
| Rio terminalThis page | 10 | 2 | 83% | 7 | — | Approved |
What people said
17 of the 19 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“The launch is perceptually instant on all my machines, and it does support sixels and all that nonsense.”
“the subtle usability issues become too much”
“there's a detailed write up”
“I'm now on rio and ghostty.”
“would be best off with something like rio on plan9”
“It's nice to see it running in novel places like the Steam Deck, Windows, and FreeBSD.”
“Rio and its predecesor in Unix v8/v10 did it better than X.”
“windows under plan9/9front have their own namespace”
“Rio is already designed and working.”
“fully type-safe from request to response”
“With rio windows I get an actual text stream to copy and paste”
“Rio can use different fonts just fine, you know.”
“You can freely resize the 9front's rio window manager's windows running rc”
“the mouse on Rio is written in stone”
“Inferno's version of Rio which is a lot more comprehensible.”
“All of Rio in Plan9 is 6K lines of code and it’s a more powerful display protocol and window manager”
“sled/rio were interesting up and coming options”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.