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I'm sort of in the same position I guess. I'm interested in other options, but so far Konsole has more than satisfied my needs. It does everything I need and is easy to customize.
Tillix with zellji is golden
Isn't that overkill?
I really enjoy alacritty, it provides you a terminal with nice defaults.
For a bit more base functionality, such as tabs or split panes, you could look into kitty or wezterm for example.
In the case of alacritty you'd need to look at other tools such as tmux or zellij for multi-terminal workspaces in one window.
It all depends by what you need it for.
I remember the first years I approached Linux I wanted to try every bit of software and that made me waste a lot of time and energy because I hadn't already learned to ask myself that question.
If you just need a terminal to run updates and basic commands, stick with what your distro is shipped with. It will be better integrated and well tested and will save you a lot of time.
If you need something in specific instead, you'll be able to find the software with a feature set that will match all your needs.
TLDR: try them out, see what you like. It's a relatively easy switch-out, it's not like you're debating different web stacks.
I used zutty for awhile. It was fine and lightweight, but broke when I switched back from the nvidia drivers to nouveau (it's an older laptop that has no reason to milk every last bit of performance out of its gpu).
Now I'm using Alacritty. I like that I can configure it in a .yml file instead of needing to use my mouse, I like that it's written in Rust, I like that I got it to do transparency within minutes. I love the vi mode.
On my daily driver I use Terminator. I like the multiplexing/tabs/panes, the infinite scrollback when needed, and the logger plugin when needed. I might see if I can get it to do transparency tomorrow.
xterm has always treated me well too. Just a good, solid choice.
I guess my two biggest pieces of advice re: terminal emulators are
use tmux, it's extremely convenient once you get the hang of it. It's like any terminal-based text editor: hard to learn, but such a pleasure to use once you've got it down. Why waste time moving over to grab your mouse when you could just hit 2-3 keys?
configure the hell out of whatever you pick. It doesn't feel comfortable, like it's your command line—in the same way that it's your bed, or your chair, or your computer—until you've configured it. After you do, it just feels comfortable. Change the color scheme to all custom colors, change the font, change the shell, change the sounds, change the cursor blink rate, disable cursor, disable animations, disable text output, enable scrollback, enable logging, enable transparency, enable autopilot, adjust the retro encabulator, fasten your seatbelts, eat your veggies, stay in school.
use transparency. There's just something so pleasant about something more than a solid color background.
Tilix
For me that's the one, even though I've also been using KDE plasma for the better part of the past ten years. Very configurable, going as far as to have an option to disable CSD. It also looks like a proper modern app without being dumbed down.
Wherever possible I use the XFCE defaults, as I basically turn Budgie into XFCE. So I use the XFCE-Terminal, and it's probably the most comfortable TE I've tried.
On Cosmic you can tile multiple windows in tabs. Tabs are essential for me, I tried Alacritty (and it had quite some issues but I got it to work) and switched back to Konsole
Would be foot but monaspace font doesn't work that well, so kitty
I just never would recommend mixing Gnome's Terminal and Konsole. Gnome and KDE never seem to play nice with each other. Besides that, go wild.
As long as I have my aliases working and I can strip away unnecessary gui clutter, I'm fine with whatever.
I was a fan of Alacritty and used it for the last 3 years, but I was frustrated by the lack of features (no scroll bar, no native tabs) and the disrespectful way the developers handled feature requests.
A few weeks ago someone on this site recommended Wezterm, so I tried it out, and it's amazing. It's everything I was hoping Alacritty would be or could become.
Read this thread for more details, specifically the reply by wez: https://github.com/wez/wezterm/discussions/1769
I was a fan of Alacritty and used it for the last 3 years, but I was frustrated by the lack of features
You were a fan, but didn't realise that it's minimal on purpose?
It's AFAIK the only popular, minimal, GPU accelerated terminal emulator. It doesn't have tabs, multiplexing, and other features because it's not supposed to. Your wm/tmux handles that already, and scrollbars are waste of screen space.
Would you also complain that a flat head screwdriver is missing those cross bits to help you unscrew phillips heads?
Konsole and Kitty are objectively better than alacrity. So it's a question of which of those to use. Konsole if you use the Breeze application style, and Kitty if you don't. Konsole has the best keybinds and it actually has a scrollbar, but kitty doesn't require breeze.