Why should you replace default macOS Terminal to iTerm2?

Published in

Mac O’Clock

3 min readMay 8, 2020

Let’s agree that the default terminal sucks !! If you are someone who spends a lot of time in a terminal then, believe me you need iterm2

What is iTerm2?

iTerm2 is a replacement for Terminal and the successor to iTerm. It works on Macs with macOS 10.12 or newer. iTerm2 brings the terminal into the modern age with features you never knew you always wanted.

Go to download page https://www.iterm2.com/downloads.html
After downloaded, drag and drop file into our Application folder.

Or if you just type (require homebrew installed)

brew cask install iterm2

Start with Colors

Go to https://iterm2colorschemes.com/ and download themes and select what you like

Type CMD+i
Navigate to Colors tab
Click on Load Presets
Click on Import
Select the .itermcolors file(s) of the scheme(s) you’d like to use
Click on Load Presets and choose a color scheme

Explore whole new features

Split Panes

Divide a tab up into multiple panes, each one showing a different session. You can slice vertically and horizontally and create any number of panes in any imaginable arrangement.

Search ( cmd + f )

iTerm2 comes with a robust find-on-page feature. The UI stays out of the way. All matches are immediately

And Many more feature i.e

Autocomplete
MouseLess Copy
Paste History

Now come to the additional tip: If you are someone who comes from Unix background you should try Oh My zsh

Oh My zsh + iTerm2 = Awesomeness

What is Oh My Zsh?

Oh My Zsh is an open-source, community-driven framework for managing your zsh configuration.

Step 1: Install zsh

Let’s install zsh using brew and make iTerm2 use it.

brew install zsh

Step 2: Install oh-my-zsh

Let’s install oh-my-zsh via curl.

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

Step 3: Re-start iTerm2

Now configure zsh to any theme you like or whatever plugins you like.

Theme: https://github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/wiki/Themes

Plugin: https://github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/wiki/Plugins

I am using Powerlevel10k this days and it comes with its own configuration wizard

Conclusion: If you haven’t tried iterm2 and OhMyZsh so far you should give it a try and if you know any other cool terminal hack then, please let us know in comment sections.