Zsh vs fish vs shell. The three main ones out there are Bash, Zsh, and Fish.

Zsh vs fish vs shell It is highly configurable and works well with POSIX. Moving from Zsh to Fish 🐠 I recently began experimenting with Fish after a long time using zsh and oh my zsh. com. Mar 24, 2023 · Zsh, short for "Z Shell," is a command-line interpreter shell for Unix-based systems such as Linux and macOS. Oh my zsh covers several aspects. With features like syntax highlighting, auto-suggestions, tab completions, and a private mode for secure commands, Fish Shell offers an intuitive and powerful alternative Fish comes with autocompletions and autosuggestions out of the box. Oct 16, 2025 · In this comprehensive comparison, we’ll dive deep into Zsh vs Fish, exploring their features, performance, customization options, and use cases. If I can have a reasonably modern shell without needing to configure it, that is worth a lot more to me than having things precisely the way I want them. By the end, you’ll see why Fish provides a better overall experience for most users. For a long time … Dec 13, 2022 · Since Fish by default comes with a lot of configurations already set, it is believed to be more beginner friendly than other sh options like Zsh. The easiest approach to install it on Ubuntu is by using the APT package manager. It is an alternative to the default shell, Bash. We can verify that by firing up a container with limited CPU and memory, like so: docker run --rm -it --cpus 1 --memory 100m ubuntu bash And then we can install all the shells, as well as hyperfine, and see how they go: 22 votes, 25 comments. As a default bash user who want to switch from bash why should i use fish instead of zsh ? I was told fish and bash have… For example, the Zsh syntax to read a file into an array is completely crazy to me (array_of_lines=("${(@f)$(my_command)}")). Here’s why. Fish provides all of those features natively, is much easier to configure (ever tried writing a completion script for zsh vs fish?), and is significantly faster. Mar 23, 2023 · Shell Comparison: Analyzing the Pros and Cons of Bash, Zsh, Fish, and Tcsh Helping you decide which shell to use！ Before we begin comparing various shells, if you’re not sure what a shell is Feb 20, 2024 · Why I Migrated to Fish Shell from Oh My Zsh Choosing a Unix shell boils down to personal preference, specific needs, and the features that one values the most in their daily usage. Jan 12, 2025 · Discover why Fish Shell. But, I could not find any comparison for zsh vs fish. You’d think that fish incorporating a lot of functionality that zsh has would Sep 13, 2025 · Find the best shell for your Linux workflow. Dive into the debate of fish vs bash. There is bash (Bourne Again shell) shell which ships by default in many Linux distributions. Curious to know which shell you are using on your Linux system? In this guide, we explore different ways that you can use to check which shell you May 18, 2025 · The command-line shell is an essential tool for interacting with the operating system, allowing users to execute commands, automate tasks, and run scripts efficiently. Apr 7, 2021 · Zsh Zsh is for people wanting an interesting mix of a good compatibility with Bash and an ecosystem of plugins with a reasonable installation process. Like zsh, it is known for being highly user-friendly and customizable, with a range of features that make it well-suited for use as an interactive shell or as a scripting language. Unix Shell是一个功能强大的工具，使程序员仅需几句话就可以完成复杂的任务。 有很多广泛使用的Shell，例如 Bourne Shell， C Shell 等。 我特别使用了 Bash 、 Zsh 和 fish shell，下面是我对为什么切换到fish甚至Zsh是使你的编程体验更愉快的最好方法之一的想法。 Apr 22, 2024 · Zsh also has a steeper learning curve than Bash, especially if you want to take full advantage of its advanced features. It does everything better than zsh and fish in my opinion: data oriented approach, more modern, vastly more powerful, less cryptic, more consistent so way easier to use for complicated stuff. I program in C and C++, apart from hello-world types, never done any major scripting. Aug 14, 2024 · It's a command-line tool for transferring data using various network protocols. Feb 11, 2023 · Here understand the different types of shells avaialble for Linux Operating system. Fish's scripting language is different than Zsh and Bash. There are multiple shells available, each with its own unique features and capabilities to cater to the varying needs and also preferences of the user. Fish Shell - A command line shell intended mostly for interactive use. . While there are various shell options available, Bash, Zsh, and Fish stand out as the most popular choices, each offering a unique set of features, making it crucial to understand their differences in order to select the right Oh My ZSH - A delightful, open source, community-driven framework for managing your Zsh configuration. After more than 10 years with zsh I realized that configuration is technical debt. For this install zsh shell, zshell plugins and some additional tools. I write a lot of Zsh scripts, so I can say with some authority that Fish's scripting is really, really nice comparatively. Thus far it’s been a good experience so thought I’d share why I did it, how I tweaked my setup and my thoughts on Fish so far. Jul 19, 2023 · A quick beginner's intro to popular Linux Shells - Bash, Fish and Zsh with their features, installation methods and guide for you. Aug 9, 2022 · Learn how to install ROS 2 humble on Ubuntu 22. Zsh is a particularly popular alternative, and there are other shells, like ash, dash, fish, and tcsh. If you just want a shell with nice features that you don't have to configure much, fish is cool. Jul 5, 2025 · Fish: Why Zsh Is Better For User Experience And Shell Features [Updated On- 2025] Zsh is better than Fish because it offers more flexibility and extensive plugins. Plus, you'll learn if being POSIX-compliant actually matters Shells read input up to an unquoted newline and then execute it. What is Zsh? Dec 22, 2022 · Here learn how to make your Ubuntu terminal look like Kali Linux. We compare Bash, Zsh, and Fish, with pros and cons to help you decide which is right for you. It’s a plugin system to integrate multiple Zsh scripts. zsh + oh-my-zsh: zsh is a powerful alternative to the default Bash shell, and oh-my-zsh is a framework that makes it even better. In the question “What are the best UNIX shells?” fish (Friendly Interactive SHell) is ranked 1st while zsh is ranked 2nd. Oct 24, 2022 · Sometime when running useradd command it throws "cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later" error and solution to remove lock files. Dec 27, 2023 · In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore the key differences between ZSH and Fish shell. Sep 9, 2025 · This article compares Bash commands and behavior with Zsh and Fish, highlights real syntax differences, and provides pragmatic guidance on which shell to choose for interactive use and scripting. The best reason to choose fish over zsh is that everything works so well out of the box that you stop messing with it. Fish: Interactive and User-Friendly Fish, or the Friendly Interactive Shell, is a relatively new shell that aims to provide a powerful yet easy-to-use experience out of the box. Discover the strengths and quirks of each shell to find your perfect command line companion. I haven’t tweaked my shell config in 7 or 8 months now. Which do you think is more powerful and or convenient? I know this sub would be biased to Fish Shell but still. Zsh (Z shell) - An extended Bourne shell with a large number of improvements. The backslash and newline are discarded before the shell tokenizes the string, so long lines can be split anywhere outside of single quotes, even in the middle of command names and variable names. Zsh is often combined with Oh My Zsh a plugin system and collection of plugins that enhance the shell. This is a different mindset from the giant zsh configs, “plugin managers” and other junk that is wholly irrelevant to using the shell. Mar 3, 2017 · Most Linux distributions include the bash shell by default, but you could also switch to another shell environment. Here we discuss the key differences of Fish vs Zsh with infographics and comparison table. It is a more user-friendly version of useradd that is typically used on Debian-based systems. 118 votes, 127 comments. The three main ones out there are Bash, Zsh, and Fish. Jul 29, 2022 · Out of the box, Linux provides a wide variety of shells. This article explodes some advantages of Fish, such as pre-installed plugins, faster and simpler setup, along with a step-by-step guide to make your migration seamless and efficient. Zsh uses more aliases whereas Fish avoids using aliases in the scripting language. Jun 13, 2025 · Terminal Showdown: Bash vs Zsh vs Fish for Power Users The command-line shell is the heart of productivity for Linux power users. Fish Shell - It is a useful utility filled shell which makes command line operations quicker with customized functions, easy to append path variable command, command history and more right out of the box. Dec 7, 2020 · Back in June, I started porting my dotfiles from ZSH to Fish. Mar 29, 2025 · In this comprehensive 2025 Linux shell comparison, we’ll break down the 7 key differences between Bash, Zsh, and Fish, covering areas like scripting power, plugin ecosystems, performance, user experience, customization, community support, and ease of use. It is a configuration file or folder which stores user application-specific configuration. Let me go over in this video the difference between Bash, ZSH, and Fish, and finally settle the debate on which one is the BEST. If you've ever tried to write completions in Zsh, it's also really painful compared to Fish. Apr 12, 2023 · Guide to the top differences between Fish vs Zsh. With themes, plugins, and helpful functions, it can transform your terminal into a productivity powerhouse. Oct 16, 2025 · In this comprehensive comparison, we’ll dive deep into Zsh vs Fish, exploring their features, performance, customization options, and use cases. If fish is friendlier than zsh, why do I see more people using zsh instead of fish? And what are the main differences… Oct 16, 2025 · In this comprehensive comparison, we’ll dive deep into Zsh vs Fish, exploring their features, performance, customization options, and use cases. Bear in mind it doesn't try to be remotely POSIXy, it won't run bash scripts, it has its own scripting language (you can of course still run bash scripts via bash when using fish). I've been looking at different shells lately, and while I like Fish's overall philosophy and doing things different from POSIX shells like Bash and Zsh, I looked at Nushell's Cookbook and the way it treats things as data instead of raw text looks really interesting. But what's the difference, and why are there so many? What Do Shells Do? When you sign in at the command line or launch a terminal window on Linux, the system launches the shell Aug 21, 2024 · Provides a strong type system for more robust scripting Es Shell: Provides a minimalistic, functional shell environment with higher-order functions Offers a simple syntax inspired by RC and Plan 9 shell, which can be more expressive for certain tasks Fish (Friendly Interactive Shell): Offers superior out-of-the-box experience with user-friendly May 6, 2020 · When I set up my Windows computer, I had the chance to take another look at the shell I'm using. I also share some of the many mistakes I made in trying to configure fish to behave a bit like a Nov 26, 2024 · Discover how switching from Zsh to Fish shell can enhance your productivity with faster performance, rich built-in functionality, and an user-friendly configuration experience. An unquoted backslash followed by a newline are discarded and cause the shell to wait for more input. But now trying my hands at python and shell-scripts. Feb 20, 2024 · Here learn about adduser command in Linux with examples. Dec 28, 2022 · What is Fish Shell? Friendly Interactive Shell (fish) is a Unix shell that was first released in 2005 by the developers at fishshell. By the end, you’ll know exactly which shell May 12, 2025 · In this article, we will explore the key characteristics of each shell, their strengths and weaknesses, and guide you toward making an informed decision. We also have sh (Bourne Shell), tcsh (TC shell), csh (C shell), Zsh (Z shell) and ksh (Korn Shell). Sep 13, 2023 · Use curl to interact with websites directly from your command line. In this guide, we learn how to use Zsh to improve your command line productivity. Mar 24, 2024 · 52 Bash vs Fish vs Zsh vs Nushell? ☶ ask unix authored by curiositry 1 year ago | 81 comments Dec 16, 2024 · Hopefully by outlining the background, pros and cons, feature comparisons, and key differentiators between Bash vs Zsh vs Fish – this guide has helped identify the best shell fit for your particular requirements as a beginner or advancing developer. Whether you’re writing scripts, managing systems, or navigating … Jun 18, 2016 · I have spent sometime trying to pick one, on net comparisons are for zsh vs bash and fish vs bash. Initial performance Fish’s performance is a lot better than ZSH’s, and very similar to Bash. Jun 10, 2022 · Here learn use-cases of dotfiles and proper management of dotfiles in Linux. ZSH has some features fish doesn't and vise versa, fish has automatic man page browsing, syntax highlighting, full true color support, automaic suggetions and more, while zsh allows for changing every little bit about it. It aimed to be a convenient interface for Unix-based systems at the time… In contrast, Zsh was created later by Paul Falstad in 1990 as an extended Bourne shell alternative. Fish is user-friendly and great for beginners, focusing on ease of use. I want to share which one I chose and how I went about setting it up. It comes bundled with thousands of helpful functions, helpers, plugins, themes. Sep 1, 2024 · Bash traces its roots all the way back to the Bourne shell (sh), created by Stephen Bourne at Bell Labs in 1977. In the shell grammar, lists Top 5 open source command shells for Linux Learn about the various open source alternatives to using the standard bash shell in Linux, including ksh, tcsh, zsh, and fish. No configuration is key for me. When comparing zsh vs fish (Friendly Interactive SHell), the Slant community recommends fish (Friendly Interactive SHell) for most people. 04. This cheat sheet will guide you through its most common commands.