If you use Terminal on OSX with any regularity, iTerm2 is an excellent, free replacement. I highly recommend it.

For a while I was opposed to seeing what else was out there, as I felt the terminal that ships with OSX works peaches for me. But I started wanting things it couldn’t do, and went looking for other options. iTerm2 is what popped up. You can checkout it’s extensive features, but i’ll go over the three that really sell it for me.

Custom Backgrounds

While Terminal can do this too, It was more as a ‘style’ than as something custom defined. This was the original reason I went hunting for something more, actually. And iTerm2 gives me what I want. For each client I have a profile, and each has a custom working directory and background image, which is nothing more than a screenshot of their logo or other identifyer. iTerm2 is nice enough to dim it so sometimes I can get away without tinkering with the levels in Preview.

Here’s the one I have for whenever I want to connect to a remote server.

Split Panes

The way Terminal does split panes is stupid. Maybe someone somewhere uses it that way, but I have never. The way iTerm2 does it is much better, and means I no longer have to have multiple windows or tabs open. I can do what I’ve always wanted. And you can tell which one you’re actually in by the difference in darkness. Love it.

Instant Replay

This is just cool. Instant Replay lets you go back in time and see something what you previously saw, so you can ‘scroll up’ but through time, so you can relive those pesky console or sql sessions without having to actually go through it all over again. I’ve used this a handful of times and I’ve felt like a coffee drinking kung-fu master everytime.

You don’t know what you’re missing

until you try it yourself. I have already abandoned Terminal entirely for the mere ability to spin up profiles with custom backgrounds and working directories. Everything else is icning for me, and I’m still working through the features list.

Love it as much as I do? consider throwing the developer some thanks via the donate button on the Website if you can afford to spare a few dollars. Consider matching my donation of $10 if you can, more if you’re generous, less if you’re poor.