When comparing VirtualBox w/ any Linux distro + Terminator vs Tabby Terminal, the Slant community recommends Tabby Terminal for most people. In the question“What are the best terminal emulators for Windows?” Tabby Terminal is ranked 4th while VirtualBox w/ any Linux distro + Terminator is ranked 31st.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Runs Pre-configured virtual machines
Allows you to run your virtual machines pre-configured by you or others.
Virtual Box versions for:
-- Windows 7/8/10
-- All Linux installations
-- MAC OS x
-- Solaris 10/11
Virtual OSs include:
-- Oracle Linux 5/6/7.x (RHEL clones)
-- Solaris10/11
-- Occassionally a Windows Beta
Oracle itself provides many free VMs, pre-configured with various software stacks and hands-on lab materials for learning, geared toward. These have helped me earn three of my Oracle certifications:
-- Oracle Database development
-- Oracle DBA
-- MySQL development
-- Java Standard/Enterprise development
-- Big data
-- Webcenter portal & others
Pre-installed software in or more of the various stacks includes:
-- Oracle Database 11/12
-- JDK/Eclipse
-- Enterprise Mgr
-- MySQL
-- WebLogic
-- Cloudera, etc.
Pro Supports modern shells
Whether you prefer zsh, bash, or fish, Linux will support it.
Pro Isolated from Windows
VirtualBox provides almost total isolation from Windows running underneath it, removing a lot of security issues.
Pro Free / Libre Software
While the OS underneath it is proprietary and does spy on you or actively violate your freedom, so to speak, you can still have a little piece of mind knowing that VirtualBox (your Linux distro and shell of choice) as well as Terminator are all FOSS.
Pro It looks just beautiful
Pro It's open source
This helps the community to move software forward and to make it even better.
Pro It comes with plugins
Pro Customizable
A lot of things can be easily configured, e.g. color theme, size, window frame behavior, tab location, cursor style, hotkeys, etc.
Pro Is cross-platform
Even the question was "...for Windows", it's nice if you can use your tools over different platforms.
Pro Under active development
Hyper development has basically stalled out.
Pro Excellent interface
At start opens last session terminals. Also has terminal tabs.
Pro Integrated GitBash, Cmd, PowerShell, and WSL
Pro Integrates with git-bash with a simple toggle in the interface
Cons
Con Install a whole operating system for one program
You would need to install the entire Linux distribution just for one single program.
Con Slightly slower than just running Linux
The Windows + VirtualBox layer introduces some overhead that wouldn't be present if Linux were installed directly on the machine.
Con Some functions still fail
Con Graphics bugs on all platforms
On Windows 10 and Debian 11, Debian 12 the graphics starts bug after some usage. It always happens, even on different computers.
Con Slow with input lag
Sadly, Electron strikes again. The input lag is noticeable and annoying. Startup also takes like 2 seconds or more (On an i7 from 2016 with SSD).
Con 80MB
It's huge. The amount of resources it consumes is not justifiable.
Con Cannot remove the default profiles
For example, you installed Arch Linux for Windows Subsystem for Linux some time ago, but now you have deleted it and currently use Ubuntu on WSL. After that, if you decide to try this terminal emulator, you'll find Arch there without an option to remove the profiles already included in Terminus.