Linux Terminal Memory Usage
Summary
This article documents a practical experiment comparing memory usage of Linux terminal emulators (e.g., xterm, lxterminal, gnome-terminal, kitty, alacritty, st, konsole, foot) across X11 and Wayland using the smem tool. It reveals that st generally uses the least memory while kitty can be the most memory-hungry, with environment differences having little impact. It ends with a testing method and recommendations for choosing a long-term terminal based on memory footprint and features like pixel-perfect images via timg.