GNOME switched its recommended terminal to gnome-console for the 42 release. I propose that we include gnome-console instead of gnome-terminal by default for Ubuntu 22.10.
Brief Summary
GNOME Console is a significantly more minimal app than GNOME Terminal.
There is currently no preferences dialog, although I expect that one will need to be added to satisfy Fedora’s requests. I am hoping this is done in time for GNOME 43. Perhaps Fedora 37 would switch to GNOME Console by default then.
It supports the GNOME 42 dark style preference. The terminal area is translucent, but without an option currently to disable or customize the transparency level. GNOME Terminal no longer offers terminal transparency but Ubuntu and Fedora carry a patch to offer this feature.
GNOME Console does have a few nice improvements. It offers notifications for long-running commands (Fedora has a patch for this for gnome-terminal.). The UI changes color to red for root/sudo terminals and purple for remote/ssh terminals.
GNOME Console is currently still GTK3.
Blocker Issue
GNOME Console doesn’t open new tabs in the current tab’s working directory. I suggest that we fix this before making GNOME Console the default since it’s really frustrating for people that rely on that feature.
Other Comments
The scrollback limit is only set to 10,000 lines which may be too low. You can set a different number or disable it entirely by setting it to -1
gsettings set org.gnome.Console scrollback-lines 10000
Try It Out
gnome-console 42 (Beta 2) is available in Ubuntu 22.04 LTS if you want to try it now.
Technical details
If this proposal happens, gnome-terminal will still be available for install but will be demoted to the universe section. (Many of Ubuntu’s most popular apps are in universe). It will still be possible to remove gnome-console if you prefer to use gnome-terminal or something else and don’t want it installed at all.
I really love the possibility to have the headerbar colored in red or purple when having root privelidges or SSH access. I don’t really miss anything from gnome-terminal OTOH.
Don’t know about nautilus, but Desktop Icons NG (DING) uses the gsettings key “default terminal” to open a terminal, so as long as we set it there, there should be no problem in the desktop part.
I just tried the new Gnome Console, and even though I like the red bar to indicate the use of root privileges, the fact that it is forcing a translucent background with no way of customisation whatsoever results really annoying for me when using the console during a long period.
I think it’s still early to adopt it as default, considering as well that there is no user-friendly way for people who miss the functionality of the old terminal to go back to that one as a default.
Well, maybe not. Since Gnome-Terminal is not a core app anymore it could switch back to its old Gnome stock icon and Console could switch to the Yard one. Keeping the icon would help with a seamless transition.
If Console switches to the aubergine Ubuntu look, I hope that this look is supplemental to the GNOME dark one and not replacing it. It is the first thing that I do when installing Ubuntu: switch to a dark solarized theme.
GNOME Console 43 was ported to GTK4 and there are regressions. With Feature Freeze only a few days away, the Ubuntu Desktop team has decided to keep using GNOME Terminal as the default terminal app for Ubuntu 22.10.
Thank you all for your input. This gives us more time to improve the Console app. I encourage you to file bugs for any other issues you find.
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS will keep using GNOME Terminal as the default terminal app.
A major blocker for Ubuntu eventually switching to Console is that Console is not accessible to screen readers. That issue affects all GTK4 terminal apps (at least the ones using vte), but Ubuntu’s GNOME Terminal still uses GTK3. The GTK developers have done some work there but the issue is not fixed yet.
By the way, GNOME Terminal has a new preview release earlier this month for a new GTK4 version, but we can’t switch to it in Ubuntu yet until the accessibility issue is solved.
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