Difference between various terminal options for Cygwin?

Question

I am using Cygwin. Due to the poor interface, I recently looked into other terminals that come with Cygwin. It seems that there isn't much difference between them.

What are some alternatives and how do they differ from the default?

Answer 1

I am assuming you are talking about: cmd, rxvt, mintty, and xterm.

If that's the case then:

• cmd - is the windows built-in command line terminal
• xterm - the default terminal for X windows
• rxvt - an alternative to xterm that's designed to be lighter weight
• mintty - a Cygwin/MingW-only terminal program based off Putty

I would say mintty is the best (native-looking) terminal emulator that comes with cygwin.