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Add to SafariWhen comparing Konsole vs MobaXterm, the Slant community recommends MobaXterm for most people. In the question“What are the best terminal emulators for Windows?” MobaXterm is ranked 6th while Konsole is ranked 23rd. The most important reason people chose MobaXterm is:
MobaXterm can connect to practically anything.
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Directory and SSH bookmarking
Konsole can bookmark ssh and telnet sessions, directories, and it can open tabs in a folder for easy access.
Pro Supports split-view
Konsole supports split-view which splits the window into two (or more) konsole instances. This is very useful for people who work a lot on the terminal and don't want to spend time navigating between different windows or tabs.
Pro True color and Smooth font
Konsole supports true color and smooth font. This made konsole more fanstatic than other terminal emulators.
Pro Embeddable into the desktop
Konsole can be embedded into desktop so it's always easily accessible, but not in the way of other windows.
Pro Export of output in plain text or HTML format
By going to file > save output, you can send all screen output to a text file.
Pro Support in Dolphin file manager
Konsole can be accessed by pressing F4 in Dolphin, which is convenient for when the user needs to open the terminal in a particular spot of the file structure.
Pro Supports font ligature
Most terminals in Linux don't support font ligature, while many modern fonts such as PragmataPro or Fira Code already have decent coverage of font ligature. Support for font ligature makes user experience and font management much easier (i.e. you don't need to keep two copies of the same font just to use in the console)
Pro Helps to identify tabs using custom icons
Users can associate each bookmark or SSH session with a custom icon, thus giving a visual hint to quickly identify a tab when a lot of tabs are open.
Pro Supports advanced color schemes
In particular solarized.
Pro Notification alerts about activity in a terminal
Konsole can monitor activities and notify the user through system notifications when a certain activity happens. This is a very customizable feature too: you can write scripts that can use this feature and notify you for whatever you want.
Pro Exceptionally fast
Konsole is usually very fast. It boots up very quickly and takes less than a second (averages to 0.25-0.59 seconds) to display files of up to 600 MB.
Pro Customize and save profiles
Profiles containing different settings can be created, saved, and loaded. Color schemes, window transparency, scroll bar, key bindings, start-up commands, window border, and menu bar can all be customized according to the user's needs.
Pro Allows CTRL-SHIFT-c/v within WSL Ubuntu as well
Good menu to customize.
Pro Flexible
MobaXterm can connect to practically anything.
Pro X server support
In case you need X11 forwarding, MobaXterm has an integrated X server.
Pro Full linux subsystem with package manager
And you can install conda for additional package management.
Pro Tabbed or split mode
Multiple terminals can either be in tabs or split horizontally or vertically.
Pro Integral remote file editor
Edit remote files via ssh and sftp
Pro SSH tunnel controls and forwarding UI controls makes it easy
Pro Automatic SFTP
With MobaXterm, there's no fiddling with multiple apps: simply connect and everything is available.
Pro Connection manager
Pro ENV can use Windows PATH
Pro Password vault
Pro Server tools (HTTPD, SSHD, SFTPD, TTFT)
Pro Build in sftp file manager
Manipulate and edit remote files in the file browser.
Pro Integrates with WSL
Integrates perfectly with the Windows Subsystem for Linux. Out of the box it offers a shell to that system.
Pro Supports macro controls (multi commands in single screen)
Cons
Con KDE Library dependencies
While not an issue if using KDE, when trying to use this terminal in other desktop environments or window managers, there will be a large amount of dependencies tied to the app, making for a large install size. For those trying to keep their desktop lean, this may be an issue.
Con Uses a lot of memory
Although it's very fast, konsole has to use a lot of resources in return. It may use up to 30 MB per instance, depending on the number of tabs and the task at hand.
Con No good support for powerline character even with patched fonts
Con Can mess terminal keybinds
Most the of the time, the terminal keybinds are just ignored to obey the kde keybinds. Can be configured though.
Con Lack of DECSCUSR support
Konsole don't allow changing the cursor shape with extended DECSCUSR sequences, using instead the temporary-profile hack. This causes pain when working in (neo)vim inside Konsole.
Con No support for double-width characters
Konsole no supports double width characters. For powerline users, you need to add a space after powerline glyph.
Con Not completely freeware
If you use MobaXterm at work, they hope you will pay for it. This isn't horrifying, but it's not providing any new features in Linux to warrant the outlay. Its integration with Putty in Windows as an X client may make it worth the funds.
Con Split screen prevents tabbed mode
If you split a screen within a tab, you have to go back to single screen before you can switch to another tab.
Con Can have some performance issues
MobaXterm can have some occasional performance issues. These happen rarely but it's worth mentioning that they exist, especially since this is a paid tool.
