Pure vs Powerlevel9K
When comparing Pure vs Powerlevel9K, the Slant community recommends Pure for most people. In the question“What's the best theme for Oh My Zsh?” Pure is ranked 2nd while Powerlevel9K is ranked 5th. The most important reason people chose Pure is:
Uses a combination of colors to differentiate between different elements in the prompt. No brackets or unnecessary special characters.
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Pros
Pro Minimalistic
Uses a combination of colors to differentiate between different elements in the prompt. No brackets or unnecessary special characters.
Pro Very simple and clean + clear
Pro Git integration
Shows which git branch you are currently on and whether the branch is dirty (in that case it shows a *
next to the branch name).
Pro Included in oh-my-zsh
This plugin is included in the base installation.
Pro Interfaces seamlessly with oh-my-zsh
While notably more complex than most other oh-my-zsh themes, the developer has taken care to ensure that the two function naturally together, though the implementation can appear unwieldy at first.
Pro Excellent documentation
Not only are all the possible variables clearly defined, most have visual examples as well. The gallery of screenshots shared by users is also well-curated and provides no end of inspiration for what you yourself might want.
Pro Support for all major families of patched font methods
Not only are the standard Powerline fonts supported, but so too are the Awesome fonts and the Nerd fonts, all offering a different approach to adding more glyphs to your standard mono-spaced terminal typography.
Pro Keeps terminal responsiveness high
One sad realization often encountered shortly after testing a new terminal theme or framework is that suddenly a noticeable lag is present when working in it. While it can happen with Powerlevel9k too, if you're deliberate in the elements you place in your prompt, it can also be mostly sidestepped.
Pro Plays well with almost every existing zsh framework or add-on
Powerlevel9k lists step-by-step instructions for integrations into a plain zsh shell, as well as how to intergrate it with: oh-my-zsh, NixOS, Prezto, antigen, Zplug, Zgen, Antibody, ZPM, and zim. No matter what you've already found to enhance your zsh terminal, this theme will complement rather than displace them.
Pro Sensitive to an extremely broad set of contextual environments
Powerlevel is capable of recognizing all of the following conditions and altering your prompt automatically to alert you or provide more relevant information to suit them: logged in as default user, logged in via SSH, low battery, background jobs running, whether the working directory is read-only or writable, VPN in use, operating with elevated privileges (sudo), vi mode (editing), working in a version-controlled directory tree, logged into AWS profile, dynamic display of Wi-Fi signal strength in the prompt itself, current partition free space, and so many more it's nearly obscene.
Cons
Con Inflexible
Configuration options are very limited. If the defaults don't work for you, you have to either patch the code or look for a different theme.
Con Requires a custom color scheme to look decent
It looks awful with all builtin color schemes. I couldn't make it look the way it does on the screenshot.
Con Git prompt stops working after some time
Con No number of background processes
You won't see if there are background processes running (or how many).
Con Very slow
Powerlevel10k is a fast reimplementation of this theme.
Con Project seems dead
GitHub issues don't get attention. No new features added in the last year.
Con Does not support 24-bit true color
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