Try Tilix — a new terminal emulator in Fedora

Fedora users are spoilt for choice when it comes to terminal emulators. From the default gnome-terminal, to xterm, konsole, terminator, or tilda, there is certain to be a terminal emulator that suits your workflow. However, in Fedora 26, there is a new choice available to Fedora users: Tilix (previously named Terminix).

Tilix is a tiling terminal emulator that closely adheres to the GNOME Human Interface Guidelines (HIG). This new terminal on the block feels and behaves very much like the majority of the new GNOME applications available — think GNOME Builder, but dedicated just to your terminal. It also features a great range of features, including tile-able panes, the ability to set different profiles for each pane, and the ability to save the tabbed layouts. Check out the Features Page on the Tilix website for more info on all the features of this terminal emulator.

Installing Tilix

Tilix is already included in the default repositories for the forthcoming Fedora 26 release. If you have taken the plunge and are running the Fedora 26 Alpha, you can get Tilix with the command:

sudo dnf install tilix

However, if you are on Fedora 24 or Fedora 25, you can install Terminix from this handy COPR repo. Note that these versions that run on Fedora 24 and Fedora 25 are older versions of this software, running on the versions of GTK that ship in Fedora 24 & 25. This is why these packages are using Tilix’s older name of Terminix. To install from this COPR repo, first enable it:

 dnf copr enable heikoada/terminix

then install terminix

sudo dnf install terminix

Note: COPR repositories are not supported by the Fedora infrastructure team. Use them at your own risk.

Using Software

14 Comments

  1. zoltanh721

    Waaaay cool. I hope it will be default in Fedora installs.

  2. Exalm

    There’s also newer tilix package in that COPR repo, at least for Fedora 25.

  3. Really, Tilix is my favorite terminal emulator. It supports CSD and traditional layout, really love it.

  4. Leslie Satenstein

    I found this terminal emulator very intuitive and easy to setup. I always use 132×43 (from my old IBM days).

    I like the ability to easily add terminal windows or to split the view into multiple areas (halfs, or quarters).

    I have a single wish list for improvements.
    a) let me change the text colouring rules to correspond to the background colours that are selected. as Tilix offers the ability to support different background shadings and levels of transparency.

    Currently, with tilix, as with other terminal emulators, given the choice of a light background, a directory listing is displayed as with pale blue and pale green, (programs, directories, text), making it difficult to visualize the wording. (my Fedora experience).

    • I might be missing what you are getting at, but all colors are customizable in tilix and grouped together in a theme. So if a theme has a dark background color, it will typically select colors (red, green, blue, etc) for the terminal that goes with that background color.

      The exception are themes that use the “Use system theme colors” option, in this case Tilix uses the system theme colors for the foreground/background and whatever terminal colors are in the Tilix theme.

  5. David

    Nice article but when I read something like this ‘not supported by the Fedora infrastructure team. Use them at your own risk’ at the end, it’s a little bit of a buzzkill.

  6. Rene Reichenbach

    Vote for Tilix as default @ Fedora. Thank you for this post its super awesome.

  7. Leslie Satenstein

    It has very nice features. But I find the existing terminal emulators quite adequate for my programming needs.

    If Tilix became the norm, I will transition to it. As I posted above, Fedora sets up text colouring based on black terminal use. Switching to the use of white background does not automatically switch the text colouring.

    Add that text color management option to tilix or the default terminal emulator(s) and you will have a winner,

  8. Alex Baranowski

    I have used terminix for little while. I don’t get whole hype for it – there is more powerful and equally simple program – Terminator. What is important is that Terminator is in standard repo – so it has ‘support’ .

  9. Just a note: In the copr repo for F25 is called tilix now (today tilix package obsoleted the terminix package)

  10. ivoarch

    +1 for Tilix as default @ Fedora installs .

  11. Eddie G.

    Loving everything that comes from the GNome developers!…..Keep up the great work! (I’ve finally convinced my sister a long time Mac OS X lover to ditch the “poisoned fruit” and make the leap into Fedora! So far?….she’s in LOVE with F35 and she claims she’s not leaving this OS anytime soon! I guess as long as you guys don’t make any “drastic” changes?….(think Ubuntu ditching Unity Desktop!!) then you’ll have…..yet anoher….lifelong Gnome user!! THANKS to all the guys and gals who make my desktop dream a reality!!!

    • Eddie G.

      Sorry about the typo…..not “F35″…but “F25”!

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