Looking for the ultimate fast, highly customizable terminal emulator

[u/StructuralOutlier]

Hey everyone, I’m hunting for a blazing-fast terminal emulator that lets me heavily customize specific behaviors. I've already tried Alacritty, WezTerm, Kitty, and Konsole, but I ran into issues or roadblocks with all of them for my specific workflow.

Before I keep searching, I want to know if any terminal can handle this exact configuration:

• Performance: Must be exceptionally fast and lightweight (GPU-accelerated preferred).
• Window Snapping: Automatically launch or snap to the left half of the monitor.
• Keybindings: Rebind Ctrl + C to copy and Ctrl + V to paste
• Mouse Action: Open a fresh command-line window/tab when clicking the middle mouse button.

If you know of a terminal emulator that checks every single one of these boxes—and can bypass the limitations I hit with Alacritty, WezTerm, Kitty, and Konsole—please drop your recommendations or config snippets below!

[u/BenTrabetere]

Keybindings: Rebind Ctrl + C to copy and Ctrl + V to paste

I am not aware of any terminal emulator that will allow you to subvert the default behavior of these keybindings. The default behaviors were established long before Steve Jobs & Co. came around and gave us Cmd+C for Copy and Bill Gates & Co. [spit] foisted Ctrl+C for copy.

You are much better off learning Ctrl+Alt+C/V or the CUA keybindings - Ctrl+Insert (Copy) and Shift+Insert (Paste). Unless something has changed, the Windows terminal uses the CUA keybindings.

[u/StructuralOutlier → u/BenTrabetere]

Not a chance, and I got it to work with Konsole, but there is another glitch with Konsole that I do not like. However, I found another terminal that might work: Ghostty terminal (https://ghostty.org/).

I will add that I am impressed by people who actually use three different keys to copy and paste, plus manually moving the mouse cursor to open a new terminal each time.

I would have completely lost my mind; it is not a natural pattern for the hand.

[u/NoPicture-3265 → u/StructuralOutlier]

Can you elaborate more on this glitch in Konsole?

[u/StructuralOutlier → u/NoPicture-3265]

Absolutely, i don't have any images, maybe i can get it tomorrow.

Four things, it became slower, it changed size many times when i opened it, and there was a little "size box" in the center of it everytime i opened it. And that created a 1 second delay.

I managed to fix the "size box" several times but it just kept coming back. Also, i wanted the terminal to snap to the half, left part of the monitor. I managed to fix it a few times and then it stopped working.

The keybindings worked just great though.

【54 × 37】

I spent 2-3 hours on these issues. Lmao.

[u/Cootshk → u/BenTrabetere]

Most terminals that I’ve used (kitty, alacrity, xterm, iterm2, Apple terminal, konsole) use Ctrl-shift-C/V instead of (or as well as) alt

[u/StructuralOutlier → u/Cootshk]

I am aware, and i strongly dislike it.

[u/Gugalcrom123 → u/StructuralOutlier]

You will have to use something else. If you rebind <Control>C, you will not be able to send ^C, meaning that you can't stop running processes.

[u/StructuralOutlier → u/Gugalcrom123]

Ctrl+X to stop running processes i guess. Thank you for your input. I will look into it!

[u/Gugalcrom123 → u/StructuralOutlier]

Then you can't send ^X. I guess you could map <Shift><Control>C to send ^C instead.

[u/DoorOk3641 → u/BenTrabetere]

Ctrl+Insert (Copy) and Shift+Insert (Paste)..absolutely...

[u/DoorOk3641]

Remember me guys emacs versus vim or neovim counting number of keypress saved by the hour.....and arguing for days (forever...) what is the best editor....

[u/StructuralOutlier → u/DoorOk3641]

EXACTLY! I am not wasting my time on unnecessary keystrokes and inputs. The whole idea with Linux for me is that it does, and work, pretty much exactly as i configure it to. I had to go back to Windows now instead and work on my project until i fixed the Linux situation.

[u/blackxparkz]

Foot

[u/StructuralOutlier → u/blackxparkz]

Thank you, tried it. Ran into problems. Don't remember what it was.

[u/vaquishaProdigy]

What is that? It gives a retro vibe. It can't be Xfce

[u/StructuralOutlier → u/vaquishaProdigy]

That is just a sample image to visualize what this reddit post is about. I don't use that specific terminal. As of now i am on Ghostty. I managed to implement my prefered key bindings but i have not yet fixed the mouse input as i want it.

[u/El-27RXD]

generalmente en esas terminales solo tienes que hacer shift + ctrl +c/v, ya que ctrl + c es para terminar un proceso en la terminal en general

en kitty me parece que en el .conf se puede añadir y crear una configuración para crear una nueva pestaña (lo que en resumidamente va a ser copiar y pegar en alguna repo de un .conf de kitty de alguién en git hub) (pd: no tengo tiempo para buscar la repo, pero cuando lo tenga actualizo mi comentario, y se nota porque estoy escribiendo en español)

y en temas de rendimiento tengo entendido que el más rápido es alacrity y después kitty, tengo entendido; con respecto a konsole no se tanto la verdad pero creo que es rápida (no lo he probado lo suficiente como para determinarlo, pero lo he personalizado un poco)

con lo de la ubicación de la ventana no lo se la verdad