XTerm is an open source and free piece of software that provides users with a Tektronix 4014 and DEC VT102/VT220 compatible terminal emulator for GNU/Linux operating systems, running on top of the X11 Window System.
The most simple terminal emulator
It is the most simple terminal emulator application for the GNU/Linux ecosystem, specifically engineered to be used by programs that can’t access the X11 Window System directly, such as certain installers. Because of this, it comes pre-installed on numerous Linux-based operating systems, along with a modern terminal emulator app.
Features a very basic user interface
The program features a basic user interface that has no right click functionality, nor a main menu or other configuration options. The main window can only be resized and it integrates well with the default theme of your desktop environment. A plethora of options are available in XTerm, including the ability to turn on or off 80/132 column switching, intercept console messages, enable or disable the always highlight, active icon and auto wraparound functions, as well as to set border color and title name for the window.
Features at a glance
It is also possible to turn on or off the text cursor blinking functionality, the ability to view bold text as color, change the background and foreground colors, use a certain font style, turn on or off normal/bold font comparison inhibit, and activate the full screen mode at startup. In addition, users can turn on/off selection-color override, initialization of ‘erase’ from pty and logic that retains window after exit, use insert mode for TERMCAP, turn on/off jump scroll and C1-printable classification, as well as to enable or disable logging and locale mode using luit.
Bottom line
There are many other interesting options that can be used when running the XTerm command, but most probably none of them will be used by end-users who will probably prefer to use a modern terminal emulator applications, such as GNOME Terminal, Konsole or Terminology.
