Ubuntu – Pain in the neck: Is there a way to reverse the vertical direction of gnome-terminal

gnome-terminal

By reversing vertically, I mean that the prompt line is always on the first line in the terminal window, and the command output is printed below the current prompt. Something like this:

Original

name@host$ ls
Desktop  Documents  Downloads  examples.desktop  Music  Pictures  Public  Templates
name@host$ (waiting for next command)

Reversed

name@host$ (waiting for next command)
Desktop  Documents  Downloads  examples.desktop  Music  Pictures  Public  Templates
name@host$ ls

I'm looking for this because looking at the bottom of the screen for a long time makes my neck hurt.

Thanks

Best Answer

No - this is the way the vast majority of computers display information.

A simple, non-technical solution is to raise your monitor up. In the UK, NHS guidelines say:

Place your screen at eye level

Your screen should be directly in front of you. A good guide is to place the monitor about an arm's length away, with the top of the screen roughly at eye level. To achieve this you may need to get a stand for your monitor. If the screen is too high or too low, you'll have to bend your neck, which can be uncomfortable.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Single instance of the GNOME Terminal

I wrote a simple shell script using wmctrl to give the Terminal focus. It does exactly what I want.

First, install wmctrl sudo apt-get install wmctrl.

Next, fire up a text-editor, copy the following lines.

#!/bin/sh
SERVICE='gnome-terminal'

if ps ax | grep -v grep | grep $SERVICE > /dev/null
then
  wmctrl -xa $SERVICE
else
  $SERVICE
fi

Save the file somewhere where you usually keep your shell scripts. In my case I did: ~/bin/single_instance.sh

cd to the directory (cd ~/bin) and make the file executable chmod +x single_instance.sh

Now, open up Main Menu select Accessories » Terminal press properties and replace command with the script: ~/bin/single_instance.sh

Open up System Settings » Keyboard » Shortcuts. Disable Launch Terminal shortcut by giving it a backspace. Make a custom shortcut. Again fill in the path and name to the script and give it the key combination ctrl + alt + t.

You’re done, single instance terminal...

Ubuntu – n alternative to gnome-terminal

_{Feel free to edit in info on features and/or maintenance.}

There is a blog post at OMG! Ubuntu! that lists five alternatives to gnome-terminal. Another post at Tech Drive-in adds even more other ones. For screenshots, see these websites.

Terminator

"It allows you to split its main window into as many tiles anyone could ever need."

sudo apt-get install terminator

Here are some of its features:

Arrange terminals in a grid
Tabs
Drag and drop to re-order terminals
Lots of keyboard shortcuts
Save multiple layouts and profiles via GUI preferences editor
Simultaneous typing to arbitrary groups of terminals

Tilda

"a configurable “Quake-style” terminal emulator, meaning that it slides down from the top of your desktop when a user-configurable key (default is F1)" _{No longer actively maintained?}

sudo apt-get install tilda

As said at linuxlibrary: "Tilda does seem to offer more customization options than similar drop-down style terminals":

Highly customizable interface.
Set the level of transparency for the main Tilda window.
Unique built-in color schemes.
Users are able to reduce the main window to its most minimal state.

Guake

"similar in functionality to Tilda"

sudo apt-get install guake

Stjerm

"comparable to [...] Guake and Tilda. It’s also very lightweight, features tabs, and an option to toggle fullscreen"

sudo apt-get install stjerm

Yakuake

"KDE-native"

sudo apt-get install yakuake

CLI companion

mostly to learn terminal commands

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:clicompanion-devs/clicompanion-nightlies

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install clicompanion

or download a .deb file for it from here.

Eterm

"Eterm is the lightest of them all"

sudo apt-get install eterm

ROXTerm

"Supports features like drag & drop of items into Terminal windows"

sudo apt-get install roxterm

Aterm:

"Extra features include fast pseudo-transparency, optional off-focus fading of text"

sudo apt-get install aterm

Wterm

"An extensive set or runtime options are available resulting in a very customizable terminal emulator" _{No longer actively maintained?}

TermKit

"a command line based system made on top of WebKit"

Terminology

As rajagenupula mentions there is also terminology.

It "can do a lot of things you wouldn't expect from a terminal emulator, like displaying thumbnails for images, videos and documents and furthermore, it also allows you to preview those files directly from Terminology" (quote from webupd8)