How much faster are the Gnome 46 terminals?

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Benchmark methodology & scope

  • Many welcome seeing a hardware-based, end‑to‑end latency test instead of the usual “cat a huge file” throughput benchmarks.
  • Others point to existing tools (vtebench, Kitty’s own tests, Typometer) and note each stresses different aspects (throughput vs latency vs frame rate).
  • Several ask for more terminals to be tested: native Linux console/TTY, xterm on uncomposited X11, foot, Kitty, Konsole, Ghostty, etc.
  • Some question using “raw Mutter” direct mode rather than full GNOME Shell, arguing the results may be optimistic for real desktops.

Terminal comparisons and latency

  • Shared Typometer results (Xorg, no compositor) rank xterm and alacritty at the top, with Kitty‑tuned close behind; many VTE‑based terminals (GNOME Terminal, xfce4-terminal, Tilix) are slower.
  • Multiple comments say Kitty has excellent throughput but (by default) worse latency than alacritty/xterm; Kitty adds intentional delay for energy saving, tunable via config.
  • Others mention wezterm, foot, Zutty, and note a general “rejuvenation” in terminal development, with several projects improving latency in recent years.

Perception and practical impact

  • Some users immediately notice GNOME 46 terminal improvements; others say they cannot perceive any difference between “slow” and “fast” terminals even after years of heavy use.
  • A common theme: latency is more “felt” than consciously seen, especially for fast typists, full‑screen terminals, and when switching to a TTY, which feels “instant.”
  • Practical pain points include: cancelling massive output with Ctrl‑C, scrolling in editors, and tailing logs. Once latency is below a certain threshold, many believe further gains have diminishing returns.

Hardware, display, and measurement caveats

  • Concerns about testing only on a modern 144 Hz gaming laptop/monitor; some argue legacy hardware should be checked, others reply that comparative results still hold.
  • Discussion of 60 Hz vs high‑refresh displays, vsync, scanout position of the light sensor, and variability from keyboard latency; some prefer to exclude keyboard timing to focus on the terminal/compositor stack.

Broader ecosystem debates

  • GNOME/Mutter criticized historically for prioritizing “smoothness” and frame scheduling over low latency; the old ~40 fps cap in VTE is cited as technical debt now being removed.
  • Energy efficiency vs ultra‑low latency is debated, especially for laptops.
  • Side discussions: whether running only on Unix‑like OSes counts as “cross‑platform,” GNOME/GTK keyboard‑unfriendly UX (e.g., path pasting), and VTE’s imperfect Unicode handling.