# Tilix: a GTK3 tiling terminal emulator for Linux that is looking for maintainers > Tilix splits a Linux terminal into panes, tabs and detachable windows using the VTE GTK+ 3 widget. The README states that only minimal maintenance is happening, so this is a review of what the tool does today, not a roadmap. **gnunn1/tilix** — A tiling terminal emulator for Linux using GTK+ 3 - Repository: https://github.com/gnunn1/tilix - Website: https://gnunn1.github.io/tilix-web - Stars: 5,724 · Forks: 324 - Language: D - License: MPL-2.0 - Published: 2026-09-22 · Updated: 2026-09-22 · Language: en - Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/gnunn1-tilix ## What Tilix does that a plain terminal window does not A default terminal emulator gives you one grid of text per window. Tilix arranges several sessions inside a single window by splitting horizontally or vertically, and it lets you drag a terminal out of one window and into another, or into a new window entirely. The README also lists input synchronization: commands typed in one terminal are replicated to the others in the group. That last feature is the one that changes how people work, because it turns a set of panes into one keyboard target. The intended user is a Linux desktop user who lives in a shell and wants pane management without leaving the GTK stack. Tilix uses the VTE GTK+ 3 widget, so it inherits terminal emulation behaviour from VTE rather than implementing a terminal from scratch. It follows GNOME Human Interface Guidelines and uses a GTK HeaderBar, which the README notes can be disabled. Sessions can be listed as tabs or in a sidebar, terminals can carry custom titles, and a layout of grouped terminals can be saved and loaded from disk. Two features are worth separating from the rest. Automatic profile switching changes the profile based on hostname and directory, so a session that lands in a production directory can pick up a different colour scheme or settings. Quake mode gives a drop-down terminal, documented on the project wiki rather than in the README. Both are configuration-level conveniences rather than emulation features, and both depend on the profile system being set up first. ## How the pieces fit: VTE, dconf and a D codebase Tilix is written in D and uses the gtkd framework to bind GTK 3. That is an unusual choice for a desktop terminal, and it has a practical consequence: the build toolchain is the D toolchain. The README states that Tilix supports DMD and LDC but not GDC, so the compiler choice is narrower than D itself allows. The build is managed by dub, which fetches dependencies, so the documented build dependency list is short: gtkd version 3.11.0 or later, and gdk-pixbuf-pixdata, which is used when building the resource file. Settings do not live in a hand-rolled config file. They live in dconf and GSettings, which is why the migration instructions from the old Terminix name are dconf dump and dconf load commands rather than file moves. This matters for anyone who manages Linux machines at scale: settings can be inspected and scripted through the same mechanisms as other GNOME-era applications, and a settings dump from the old key still works even after the Terminix schema has been removed, because user-customized values survive schema removal and the defaults are identical between the two names. Colour schemes are stored as files, and the README says custom schemes are created by creating a new file. Background images and transparent backgrounds are supported. The notification feature for processes finishing out of view and the experimental trigger and badge features all require patched VTE builds, specifically the Fedora notification patches for VTE. That is a real constraint: on a distribution that ships unpatched VTE, those features are not available, and the README points to the wiki for the trigger and badge details rather than documenting them inline. ## Installing Tilix on Ubuntu, Arch and other Linux distributions The README points to a packages page on the project site for a variety of distributions, and that is the first place to look. If your distribution has a package, use it. The manual install path exists for people who build from source, and the README warns that the install script has only been tested on Arch Linux. To build, install the D compiler and Phobos plus dub. The README does not list per-distribution package names for these, so use your distribution's D toolchain packages. Then compile from the repository root with a release build: ```bash dub build --build=release ``` After the build, the resources have to be copied into place. The README documents a single script for that, and notes it writes into /usr: ```bash sudo ./install.sh ``` The same script accepts a prefix if you want a user-local install, for example: ```bash ./install.sh $HOME/.local ``` The README adds a condition to that: a custom prefix requires adding the prefix's share directory to your XDG_DATA_DIRS environment variable, otherwise the installed resources will not be found. There is also a Meson build path, documented on the project wiki rather than in the README. For a first real use, open Tilix and split the window. The README describes splitting horizontally or vertically but does not give default keybindings, so check the application's own keyboard shortcut settings rather than assuming a binding. Then drag one terminal's tab onto another window to confirm the drag-and-drop rearrangement works in your desktop environment. Only GNOME and Unity are listed as officially tested; the README says users have had success with other desktop environments, which is not the same as support. ## Where Tilix is the wrong tool The maintenance statement is the first limitation, and it is explicit. The README carries a warning that the project is looking for maintainers, that only very minimal maintenance is done, that no new features will be implemented, and that pull requests may be reviewed very slowly. Anyone choosing a terminal for a fleet of workstations, or for a workflow they expect to grow, should weigh that directly. The last push to the repository was on 2026-07-01, which shows the repository is not frozen, but the README's own framing of the project's capacity is the more useful signal. The second limitation is platform. Tilix is a Linux application built on GTK 3, and the README describes it as a tiling terminal emulator for Linux. There is no documented Windows or macOS build. Search interest in a Windows version exists, but the README documents nothing of the sort, and the dependency list is Linux desktop libraries throughout. The third limitation is the patched-VTE dependency for a subset of features. Notifications when processes complete out of view need the Fedora notification patches for VTE; triggers and badges are marked experimental and also need patched VTE. On a distribution with stock VTE, plan on the core pane and layout features only. Finally, the install script is a blunt instrument. The README states it installs to /usr and that it has only been tested on Arch Linux, with the note to use it with caution. On distributions with an official package, the manual path is the wrong choice entirely: use the package manager, and use the documented uninstall script only if you installed manually in the first place. ## Tilix compared with Terminator and other tiling terminals Terminator is the closest well-known comparison, and the difference is in the stack rather than the feature list. Terminator is a GTK terminal emulator that provides split panes and grouped input; Tilix provides the same broad category of features but is written in D on top of gtkd, and its settings live in dconf and GSettings rather than in a configuration file. If you already manage GNOME-era settings through dconf, that is a point in Tilix's favour. If you prefer a plain text configuration file you can version in a dotfiles repository, the dconf model is a mismatch, and the migration instructions in the README, which use dconf dump and dconf load, show exactly how settings move around in that world. The second real difference is the dependency on VTE features. Tilix's notification, trigger and badge features depend on patched VTE builds, so their availability varies by distribution. A terminal that does not build on those patches will simply not offer them. That is a design choice with a cost, and the README is honest about it by pointing at the wiki and marking two of the three as experimental. The third difference is layout persistence. Tilix saves the grouping of terminals and can load it from disk. That is a session-restore feature, and it is the kind of thing that decides adoption for people who keep a fixed set of panes open all day. Whether it fits your workflow depends on whether your pane arrangement is stable, because a saved layout is only useful if you reuse it. ## Licence, upgrade cost and what the release history implies Tilix is licensed under MPL-2.0. That is a file-level copyleft licence, which means modifications to covered files carry obligations when distributed, while the licence permits combining covered code with other code in a larger work. This is a description of the licence identifier, not legal advice; if you plan to redistribute a modified Tilix, read the licence text in the repository's LICENSE file and get proper advice. The release history is the practical upgrade signal. The most recent release listed is 1.9.6 from 2023-11-08, preceded by 1.9.5 in 2022 and 1.9.4 in 2021. That cadence is slow, and it matches the README's statement about minimal maintenance. For a user, slow releases mean fewer surprises but also fewer fixes, and it means a bug you hit may sit for a long time. For a distributor, it means packaging work is infrequent, which is not a problem in itself. Upgrade cost is mostly about the settings key and the schema. The README documents a migration from the old Terminix name to Tilix using dconf dump and dconf load, and notes that old user-customized settings remain readable after the schema is removed. If you are coming from Terminix, that migration is the first thing to do, and the README also documents moving bookmarks and custom themes with a directory move from ~/.config/terminix to ~/.config/tilix. If you are not coming from Terminix, none of that applies. The build path is the other upgrade cost: a source install means re-running the build and install scripts when you want a newer revision, and the README's install script warning about Arch-only testing applies each time. ## Conclusion Adopt Tilix if you want a GTK3 terminal that splits panes, synchronizes input across sessions and saves layouts to disk, and you are willing to live with the maintenance position the README states. Do not adopt it if you need new features, prompt bug triage, or a terminal that runs outside Linux, since the project targets GTK3 on Linux and the README asks for maintainers. Before installing, check that your distribution ships a package and that your GTK and VTE versions meet the documented minimums of GTK 3.18 and VTE 0.46; before building from source, confirm you have DMD or LDC plus dub, because Tilix does not support the GDC compiler. ## FAQ ### What is Tilix? Tilix is a tiling terminal emulator for Linux that uses the VTE GTK+ 3 widget. It arranges terminals by splitting them horizontally or vertically, supports drag and drop between windows, and can save and load groups of terminals from disk. ### How to install Tilix on Ubuntu? The README points to a packages page on the project site for a variety of distributions, so on Ubuntu the first step is to check whether your release ships a Tilix package. The manual path is to build with dub and run the install script, but the README warns that script has only been tested on Arch Linux. ### How to install Tilix on Arch Linux? The README says the install script has only been tested on Arch Linux, and lists Tilix as available as packages for a variety of distributions. Either use the distribution package or build with dub and run sudo ./install.sh, which installs into /usr. ### How to use Tilix? Split the window horizontally or vertically to arrange terminals, then drag terminals between windows or into a new window to rearrange them. Input can be synchronized so commands typed in one terminal are replicated to the others, and a grouping of terminals can be saved and loaded from disk. ### What is Tilix terminal? It is a tiling terminal emulator for Linux built on GTK+ 3 and the VTE widget, written in D. It supports split panes, tabs or a sidebar for sessions, custom titles, colour schemes stored in files, and Quake mode for a drop-down terminal. ## Sources - [gnunn1/tilix on GitHub](https://github.com/gnunn1/tilix) - [License: MPL-2.0](https://github.com/gnunn1/tilix/blob/master/LICENSE) - [Project website](https://gnunn1.github.io/tilix-web) - [README](https://github.com/gnunn1/tilix/blob/master/README.md) - [Releases](https://github.com/gnunn1/tilix/releases) --- Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/gnunn1-tilix