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When comparing st vs Xfce4 terminal, the Slant community recommends Xfce4 terminal for most people. In the question“What are the best terminal emulators for UNIX-like systems?” Xfce4 terminal is ranked 4th while st is ranked 8th. The most important reason people chose Xfce4 terminal is:
Like other applications included in the Xfce package, this terminal emulator is very lightweight and doesn't require many resources to run. This makes it perfect for systems that have low specs.
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Low memory usage
st is built to serve as a lightweight terminal emulator. It's very light and doesn't require many resources to run, making it able to run well on older and low-end machines.
Pro Extremely simple architecture
st consists of a single C file that takes seconds to recompile. This also makes it very easy to understand and customize.
Pro 24-bit "True Color" support
st supports color escape sequences for a full 16 million 24-bit color spectrum, instead of the typical 256 colors.
Pro Support for fontconfig
There is full XFT (X Free Type interface library) and fallback font support through fontconfig in st. If your selected font is missing a certain glyph or symbol, but one of your other installed fonts has it, it will be shown.
Pro Copyfree licensing
Copyfree licensing implies that the user has the freedom to copy, use, modify, and distribute what he/she possesses.
Pro Image previews
Handles image previews (e.g. in ranger) way better than other terminal emulators.
Pro Patches are great
The patches on the site are great. Scroll back, hide the mouse, etc.
Pro Minimalist
Hackable and lightweight.
Pro Blazing fast
it is extremely responsive and fast, even on older computers.
Pro Clean
The terminal doesn't have any bloated features nobody uses. It is very minimal and extendable.
Pro Good for systems with low specs
Like other applications included in the Xfce package, this terminal emulator is very lightweight and doesn't require many resources to run. This makes it perfect for systems that have low specs.
Pro True transparency
You can set the transparency of the Xfce4 terminal on any amount you want, out of the box.
Pro Tabs support
Xfce4 fully supports tabs and tab-based navigation.
Pro Almost everything is customizable
You can configure size, color, background, etc.
Pro Composition effects
Xfce4 terminal takes advantage of xfce composition effects.
Pro Fast rendering
Pro Can be switched to a drop-down terminal
You can configure the Xfce-terminal to act as a dropdown terminal if you want, which makes for greater ease of use.
Cons
Con Configuration requires recompiling
Though recompilation takes seconds, knowledge of C header files is required for customization (though it's pretty easy to do for someone who knows how to edit config files).
Con Text is cut off when resizing windows
In the vanilla build, when reducing windows, lines do not wrap, they are cut off. When the window is made large again, some of the text is missing.
Con Crashes when some characters or colored fonts are displayed
Con No scrollback by default
The best way to perform scrollback is to use a multiplexer (such as tmux, screen, or dvtm) if you want scrollback and reverse-search support.
Con New features means installing patches
Just to get copy/paste support and scrolling, you have to install patches. And it's not that intuitive for a beginner.
Con Internal border/margins
Doesn't support internal margins.
Con Source code edits (aka configs) need to be redone after updating
Con Imperfect fontconfig support for CJK characters
It [st] doesn't seem to use CJK fonts provided by fontconfig while other programs use such fonts.
Con Cannot set text color for character under cursor to background color
Suppose you have a dark background with a light cursor and light foreground color: the light cursor will cover up whatever character it is on, so that you cannot read it. There is no option to set the foreground color for the character under the cursor to what is normally the background color. Such an option would allow you to read the character under the cursor.
Con Execution in xfce4-terminal - e mode is not always functional
Con Resizing text resizes window
Con No profiles
There's no profiles or profile-based customization in Xfce-terminal.
Con Can't scroll on spamming text
When text generates too fast, you can't scroll it, so you just can't read anything in such moments.
Con Does not support sixel images
