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What is Ghostty?

Ghostty is a fast, feature-rich, and cross-platform terminal emulator that uses platform-native UI and GPU acceleration. Created by Mitchell Hashimoto (founder of HashiCorp), Ghostty differentiates itself by providing speed, features, and native experience without forcing you to choose between them.

            🚀 Why Latest Versions Matter: Ghostty 1.0 was just released in December 2024 after years of development. The latest versions include critical performance optimizations, new terminal features, and important bug fixes that make it competitive with established terminals like Alacritty and Kitty.
        

⚡ Key Features of Ghostty

🎮 GPU Acceleration

Uses OpenGL on Linux and Metal on macOS for hardware-accelerated rendering. Maintains 60fps under heavy load with superior performance.

🖥️ Native UI

True platform-native experience. SwiftUI on macOS, GTK on Linux. Real windowing, menu bars, and native settings panels.

📊 Standards Compliant

One of the most compliant terminal emulators available. Comprehensive xterm compatibility with modern terminal innovations.

🔧 Rich Features

Multi-window support, tabbing, splits, ligatures, and extensive customization options without sacrificing performance.

🏆 Performance Benchmarks

4x faster than iTerm and Kitty for large text rendering
2x faster than Terminal.app for IO operations
Competitive with Alacritty while offering much richer features
60fps rendering maintained under heavy load
Low jitter IO with dedicated IO thread

🆕 What's New in Ghostty 1.0+

Stable Release: Production-ready after 2+ years of development
Multi-Renderer Architecture: OpenGL on Linux, Metal on macOS
Advanced Windowing: Multi-window, tabs, and splits support
libghostty: Embeddable terminal library for other applications
Built-in Crash Reporter: Automatic crash detection and reporting
Cross-Platform: Consistent experience across Linux and macOS

📦 Installation from debian.griffo.io

Step 1: Add Repository

# Add GPG key
curl -sS https://debian.griffo.io/EA0F721D231FDD3A0A17B9AC7808B4DD62C41256.asc | sudo gpg --dearmor --yes -o /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/debian.griffo.io.gpg

# Add repository
echo "deb https://debian.griffo.io/apt $(lsb_release -sc 2>/dev/null) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.griffo.io.list

# Update package list
sudo apt update
            

Step 2: Install Ghostty

# Install latest Ghostty
sudo apt install ghostty

# Verify installation
ghostty --version
            

🎯 Basic Usage Examples

Launch Ghostty:

# Start Ghostty terminal
ghostty

# Launch with specific configuration
ghostty --config-file ~/.config/ghostty/config

# Open new window
ghostty --new-window
        

Configuration Example:

# Create config directory
mkdir -p ~/.config/ghostty

# Basic configuration (~/.config/ghostty/config)
font-family = "JetBrains Mono"
font-size = 12
theme = "dark"
window-padding-x = 10
window-padding-y = 10
        

🚀 Why Choose debian.griffo.io?

⚠️ Official Debian Status: Ghostty is a very new project (1.0 released December 2024) and is not yet available in official Debian repositories. debian.griffo.io provides immediate access to the latest stable releases.

✅ Immediate Access: Get Ghostty 1.0+ right now, no waiting for official packaging
✅ Latest Features: Access newest performance improvements and features
✅ Automatic Updates: Packages updated within hours of upstream releases
✅ Proper Dependencies: Correctly packaged with GTK and graphics dependencies
✅ Multi-Distribution: Works on Bookworm, Trixie, and Sid
✅ No Compilation: Pre-built binaries, no need to compile from source

🔗 Related Packages

Also available from debian.griffo.io:

Zig Programming Language - Ghostty is written in Zig
Yazi File Manager - Perfect companion for terminal workflows
fzf Fuzzy Finder - Enhanced terminal navigation

            🎯 Perfect for: Developers who want the fastest terminal experience, users switching from iTerm/Kitty/Alacritty, anyone needing GPU-accelerated performance with native platform integration.
        

👻 Install Latest Ghostty Terminal