A KDE developer reveals Kwi, a GPU-accelerated terminal built on Ghostty's library
It's still an experiment, but it is promising.
KDE developers have unveiled Kwi, a GPU-accelerated terminal built on the Ghostty library. The software, still in its early stages, could potentially become an essential tool alongside or even replacing Konsole. Eike Hein, one of the developers, showcased Kwi on the KDE Blog, explaining that it draws inspiration from the Korean word for ghost, Kwisin (귀신), and is named Kwi.
Hein noted that Konsole, the default KDE terminal emulator, relies on CPU rendering through QWidget, which isn't ideal. In contrast, newer KDE software utilizes Qt Quick for GPU acceleration using Vulkan or OpenGL. Kwi leverages Qt Quick, enabling it to render graphics up to 35 times faster than Konsole, depending on the benchmark.
The software utilizes the libghostty-vt library, which handles output and screen management, and is already integrated into Neovim and Ghostel. While Kwi doesn't yet have a released version, it's described as an experimental proposal, with the developers aiming for it to be a useful tool. For those interested, the KDE Invent page for Kwi offers the opportunity to test the software, although users should expect bugs and other experimental issues.
Written by urgent.news from XDA Developers's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
