xfce4-terminal
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 22 of 40 terminal emulators by recommenders
Small, fast Linux terminal that starts instantly and fits the Xfce desktop; caveat: some hotkeys such as Hyper-modifier combinations are unsupported.
Small, fast Linux terminal that starts instantly and fits the Xfce desktop; caveat: some hotkeys such as Hyper-modifier combinations are unsupported.
14 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 71%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 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
Starts instantly and feels fast
“it opens near instantly and has the least input latency of any of the other terminal emulators I've tried”
Comment from 12 May 2026 in “Linux Terminal Memory Usage” “xfce4-terminal starts utterly instantly without single instance feature.”
Comment from 3 Aug 2026 in “Show HN: Shitty – fast terminal. Memory-unsafe and faster than yours” “it's faster to load and has all the features I need”
Comment from 28 Oct 2026 in “Ghostty 1.4” - Comment from 28 Oct 2026 in “Ghostty 1.4”
Tiny memory and resource footprint
“Ridiculously small footprint and never drew attention to itself.”
Comment from 3 Aug 2026 in “Show HN: Shitty – fast terminal. Memory-unsafe and faster than yours” “Good bang for the memory buck.”
Comment from 11 May 2026 in “Linux Terminal Memory Usage” Native look that fits the desktop
“my go-to when working within a GUI environment is xfce4-terminal, which is about as native as I can imagine”
Comment from 4 Dec 2025 in “Ghostty is now non-profit” “makes it visually fit in my desktop, and I like that”
Comment from 3 Aug 2026 in “Show HN: Shitty – fast terminal. Memory-unsafe and faster than yours”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Hotkey support differs from other terminals
“all have slight variations between simple things like rendering and more important things like hotkeys”
Comment from 29 Apr 2026 in “Your Terminal Is Burning Battery Like It's Mining Bitcoin” “which does not support the Hyper modifier (which I use extensively)”
Comment from 10 Mar 2026 in “Rebasing in Magit” Fails to start or work
“For a while the xfce4-terminal was broken and would not start.”
Comment from 18 Jul 2026 in “Reviving a 15-year-old netbook with Arch Linux” “xfce terminal doesn't work”
Comment from 9 Jun 2026 in “Life is too short for a slow terminal”
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 | — |
| xfce4-terminalThis page | 10 | 4 | 71% | 4 | — | Approved |
What people said
12 of the 14 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“fastest I have tried by far”
“it's faster to load and has all the features I need”
“Ridiculously small footprint and never drew attention to itself.”
“xfce4-terminal starts utterly instantly without single instance feature.”
“makes it visually fit in my desktop, and I like that”
“For a while the xfce4-terminal was broken and would not start.”
“xfce terminal doesn't work”
“it opens near instantly and has the least input latency of any of the other terminal emulators I've tried”
“Good bang for the memory buck.”
“all have slight variations between simple things like rendering and more important things like hotkeys”
“which does not support the Hyper modifier (which I use extensively)”
“my go-to when working within a GUI environment is xfce4-terminal, which is about as native as I can imagine”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.